4th Poll

Do you exercise daily?
3 (50%) No. But I'm going to start.
3 (50%) Yes, I walk.
1 (16%) Yes, I do other exercises.
0 (0%) Yes, I swim.
0 (0%) Yes, I dance.
0 (0%) Yes, I weight train.
1 (16%) Yes, I do yoga.
0 (0%) Yes, I do aerobics.
0 (0%) Yes, I jog and/or run.
Total
8 votes

Product recommendation

I'm all about trying to find a good, healthy way to start the day. I've posted previously about the veggie bites, but I've had a hard time finding them again at my local hip market. (You know, the one that carries organic products in a section of a corner back in the back of the store, along with all the jars of vitamins and other supplements that pretend to be "health foods.")

Anyway, last night I was at Walgreen's picking up some Co Q-10. I honestly don't know what this stuff is but my doctor told me to take it and so I do. I really should look at some info on that. But anyhoo... I spent a good amount of time in the cereal aisle looking at the nutrition information on cereal boxes. I was chagrined and all to discover how little fiber there is in most cereals that promote themselves as healthy food. Especially compared to the number of carbohydrates per serving, and especially compared to the number of carbs from sugar. Thanks Tech, and to the diabetes educators out there, for raising my awareness about carbs in the life of a diabetic.

So I finally ran across one box that had some really interesting numbers. Get this:
Serving size: 1/2 cup
Caolries: 60
Calories from fat: 10
Total Carbohydrates: 25 grams
Dietary Fiber: 14 grams
Soluble Fiber: 1 gram
Sugars: 0 grams
Other Carbohydrate: 11 grams

Holy cow! 14 grams of dietary fiber in 1/2 cup!! That oughta work better than Roto Rooter!

I've taken to buying milk in the small 2-cup bottles. Each cup of milk (this is whole, Vitamin D)has 11 grams of carbohydrate as a sugar. So I've found that 1/2 cup is plenty plus for a 1/2 cup of cereal. So count that as 6 carbs plus the 11 net carbs (once you subtract the dietary fiber from total carbs) and my breakfast is 17 carbs... just over one serving (15 carbs is one serving of carbohydrate.) Not bad, especially for the boost of that 14 grams of dietary fiber!

So what's this product I'm recommending to you? It is General Mills' Fiber One Bran Cereal. This one little serving is satisfying and provides you with 57 percent of your daily value of fiber.

Don't forget to drink lots of water with your fiber, and make sure you get some walking time in every day.

I have the first in a series of four diabetes education classes starting this morning. Every Wednesday morning from Halloween until the day before Thanksgiving I'll be at the hospital for three hours learning about managing my disease. That seems like a LOT of classroom time for me but I know I have to do this to live.

Keep up your good work, everyone. Tech, take care and let us know how the Sim Fast is going this week.

Slim Fast for 2 weeks

No, I haven't given up on losing weight. Been horribly busy with work and promoting Murder by Dewey Decimal, but that's no excuse. So I've decided to drink Slim Fast for two weeks.

I went on Slim Fast years ago and lost 40 pounds over six months. But eventually it made me sick -- probably because I didn't eat healthy that one meal a day that the Slim Fast plan allows and also sometimes didn't have that one meal, just drank another Slim Fast.

Anyway, I'm going to use Slim Fast to get my weight loss jump-started. I bought enough of it for two weeks and a bit more, and I started it today. The carbs in it are low enough to not mess up my diabetic diet plan, too. So I'm going to be drinking my breakfast and lunch the next 14 days. I'll let you know how it goes.

Just a quick checkin

I only have a few minutes before I leave for rehearsal, but I wanted to check in with you all. I've started a simple health journal. I'm keeping track of water because, since I'm not at home all day anymore, it's easy for me to lose track of how much I'm drinking. I'm keeping track of calcium supplements and the multivitamin. And just jotting down what I'm eating, but not how much, because I'm looking at the general pattern of my food habits. It's helping a lot to be more aware of that pattern, since my goal is better health.

My next exercise step is to add flexibility and strength training to my workout. Jeans work for walking, but not for yoga. I've finally found leggings in my size at a price I'm willing to pay, so I'm ordering them today. And I'm ordering a replacement for the Broadway tunes video I used to do that uses resistance bands for strength training. (My box of exercise videos disappeared somewhere between our apartment in Salinas and the time we lived at my mother's.) I prefer resistance bands because they're cheaper than free weights, take up less space in the house (a must, since our apartment is small), and are easy to do correctly. So, again, I'm doing those baby steps and getting closer to my goals. This area, surprisingly, is the easiest for me to improve, especially since I changed my goal to "improving my overall health" rather than "losing x number of pounds" or "becoming a size y". It just works better for me that way. I know I'm in the minority in our current "skinny is everything" culture. But that's my general MO in all areas of my life. I do what's important to me. FWIW

Hooray!

I broke through the 20-pound mark today! I've lost 20 pounds since we started The Great Slim Down. That makes six pounds I've lost since the Great Doctor Confrontation, too. Makes me want to go shopping for somethin'! All my pants are too big now!

Jean's Update

I hesitate to credit this, because my weight can easily fluctuate by this amount in a single day, but I hope by saying it, I'll draw encouragement and make real progress over the next couple of weeks. This morning, my weight was four pounds less than it was on the first of October.

Other than last night when I wasn't feeling well and didn't to any and tonight when I only did one, I've been doing two FitDeck cards per day for the last week and half. It's been easy, and it feels good to do (how many push-up cards are in that darn deck, anyway?).

I've done a good job of journaling what I eat each day -- including adding comments about what was going on when I think I've done some emotional eating to document and maybe validate patterns. By validating patterns, I can devise specific alternatives.

I'm fortunate to have a physician's assistant for an office mate, and he leads a very healthy lifestyle (his job here, until this reorganization, had been wellness). By paying attention to him, I've been getting some great ideas. For instance, his lunch today was yogurt and a banana. Is that a quick and easy lunch, or what?

How are your Baby Steps coming along?

3rd poll results

What's your favorite diet plan?
1 (12%): South Beach
7 (87%): Weight Watchers
0 (0%): Atkins
0 (0%): Jenny Craig
0 (0%): Housework
Total
8 voters

My Next Baby Steps

I've been noticing my diet (as in "what I eat regularly", not "some special food plan someone else made up so I'd get skinny") has been gradually getting a bit balanced in a way that usually happens when I have major stress, like my hubby's current laid-off status. I eat fewer fruits and veggies and more higher-fat "comfort food". That's not particularly unusual for a fat lady. But I don't feel well when I eat that way, so I try to pay attention and nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand.

My husband has been complaining that we don't have plain, old sandwich bread around. I really want to bake my own again, but haven't had time. It doesn't take a lot of time to do the baking. The problem is you have to stay home so you can do the steps when it's time. And this week, I haven't been home. So, one of my things for tomorrow is to bake bread. I like to do my own because if I bake it, I know that it's whole wheat and I use eggs and 1% milk for part of the liquid, which increases the protein in the bread. This makes a very hearty loaf and then a half sandwich or one piece of French Toast is plenty. That story illustrates one baby step--do as much of my own baking as I can, boosting the nutrition in whatever ways I can.

Plus, it increases the whole grains in my diet. We've been eating whole grain pasta and they're making really good stuff now. I always make whole grain brown rice. It has more flavor than white. And I'm going back to eating steel-cut oatmeal cooked in 1% milk for breakfast. My husband likes to cook breakfast and he does great scrambles, omelettes, and stuff. But I'd like to save those for a special Saturday morning meal, rather than every day. The thing is, when he's off work, making breakfast gives him a feeling of doing at least one thing that's productive in his day. So, I'm going to see if doing a super-whoop-dee-do brunch on Saturday morning will do the same thing because he can plan it in advance and do it up special.

The other change I want to make is to have a salad and fruit with lunch, and a salad and 2 fruit/vegetable dishes with dinner. Or mix the equivalent into recipies. I used to aim for a salad and one veggie or fruit, but I noticed that I eat too large a serving of rice, potatoes, pasta, grains, etc. when I do that. My old way of eating is not particularly unhealthy, I just feel better and have more energy when I balance my food more toward veggies and eat smaller servings of meat and bread stuff.

We'll see how that goes as time goes on. The added benefit is that I'm substituting lower-calorie foods for higher-calorie foods, so I should lose some weight as a by-product of changing the way I eat. I'm planning to work on those changes this month. Then I have some other things I want to do next month.

Wow, Thanks!

Thanks for the banner! I weighed in again this morning and I am now FIVE POUNDS down from the doctor's visit and 19 pounds since the beginning of The Great Slim Down! Come on 20!! Maybe by Monday? Sometime in the next few days I will break through that 20 pound mark like a paper ribbon! Woo hoo!!!

Product recommendation

I just tried Morningstar's Veggie Bites for breakfast and Yum-O! Two thumbs up for this alternative to yuck.

A blend of egg whites and veggies formed into little bite-size morsels, there are three to a serving. 90 seconds in the microwave and I had a tasty, yummy, fast hot breakfast. The lightly breaded crust was nice, not soggy. Good texture, fabulous taste. I am very, very happy to have discovered these and tried them.

They are a very, very nice break from my cold cereal. There's something about starting the day with something hot that is much more satisfying.

Five stars!

Reporting in

As of this morning, I have lost 4 pounds since the Great Save Your Life speech of '07. Since we started the Great Slim Down, I am down 18 pounds.

I have reached one of those checkpoints where I need to realize my size has changed, and I don't need to buy clothes that are quite as large. Particularly slacks. I bought two pairs in my regular size, without a thought of trying them on, and both are loose on me, just about at the point of being miserably large. (boo hoo). Next payday I may actually try buying a smaller size, which will be a real landmark moment for me as I go down from plus size to regulars!

It is a bit hard to think that I'm right there at that milestone. I've been here before, and it's like climbing that first hill on a roller coaster. It's hard to get to the point where progress shows, and then ...

all of a sudden ...

WE'RE IN FOR A WILD RIDE ON THE WAY DOWN!!! WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and my blood sugar levels are improving too!

Stumbling Along

Baby Steps are going well this week. I've logged what I've eaten in my private on line food diary. I've recorded my "loving movement" (to use a FlyLady term) -- my walks. I've faithfully done the exercise on each FitDeck card I turned up each day (usually more than the minimum number of repetitions). Today, I got exuberant and did two cards. I'm not ready to commit to doing two cards yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if I began doing more than one card a day. It's so simple.

I've read further into Body Clutter, and I'm making progress there.

2nd poll results

What's your favorite exercise?
2 (28%): Walking
0 (0%): Jogging
3 (42%): Swimming
2 (28%): Dancing
0 (0%): Housework
Total
7 voters

Drink That Water, Eat That Fiber

Both are critical to keeping the old body working, reducing weight and reducing cholesterol levels. They help you do it COMFORTABLY if you get my drift. Just sayin'. Cheers.

Boring may be good

A comment by Trixie about how she was getting tired of salads struck me as insightful. Or at least it gave me this insight: Losing weight means that food has to be less exciting than it was to me. No, wait, hear me out. There are thousands of cookbooks out there that teach us how to cook tasty low-cal meals. They use spices, garnishes, unusual combinations, substitutes, etc., but the point, the perhaps unconscious message of all those books is that eating is important, that it's something we need to spend time on, that taste should rule our lives. Yet ... there's an old saying about how we live to eat instead of eating to live.

I'm not saying that our meals have to be sand and ashes with a bit of grass. I am saying that too much emphasis on the desirability of food is a bad thing. There's nothing wrong with a boring salad while having a good lunch conversation with friends or while reading a good book or watching an interesting TV show.

Food has got to stop being our lover and has to become our casual friend. As you can tell, I've been carrying on an improper relationship with chocolate cherry cheesecake for years. I think it's time we both moved on.

What do you think?

Good stuff!

I am so happy to have an increase in participation here! Thank all of you for posting more often now and let me tell you how much I appreciate that we each have different things to contribute!

Tech, thank you so much for all you've done to inspire greater sharing. It's a huge help to have someone who is motivated to get others to write about their efforts. And I also thank you more than you can know for sharing diabetes information. I have an appointment with the diabetes educator at 7 tomorrow morning and a diabetes class for several hours Friday morning.

Now, a report on how my good tools are helping my progress. So far, I have lost 2.5 pounds since my doctor's appointment last week. My new scale also measures percent body fat and percent body water. These numbers are much harder to change! I am so dehydrated it may take me a few weeks to get my body water percentage up where it should be, but the main thing is I am aware now and working on that project! I think my cells have been dried up long enough that it's a little difficult to absorb as much water as I've been drinking. I'm trying to make water my main, if not my only, beverage.

Dropping the Diet Coke addiction will be easier than I thought, if I stay aware and alert. I tasted some last night and my brain is already realizing it's just too sweet tasting with good food. But habit won out at lunchtime -- I picked up a bottle and had already started drinking it before I realized what I had done. I must be more vigilant about that -- conscious about my choices. Even iced tea is better; I like the bitterness of unsweetened tea and it seems a better accompaniment to food than an artificially sweet drink. Water, however, is even better and absolutely more satisfying to the body.

I am getting tired of salads, though. I continue to eat them, because they are better than many alternatives. It is time for me to make my own. I've about gotten worn out with the fast-food choices for salads, and many are not truly good alternatives.

Another hint: Maybe you've all already done this, but virtually all fast-food places, as well as chain restaurants, have food nutrition information on their web sites. I spent some time one evening looking at what I consider "best choices" from each of the places I'm most likely to eat at. I was shocked, absolutely shocked, by some of the nutrition information!

It is encouraging, though, to think of the huge reduction in calories that will take place when I have stopped eating those things.

Now, I never did convince myself that Chili's Southwestern Egg Rolls are a diet food. I know better. But here's the shocker (if you like these the way I do): A serving is three pieces (six come in an order, and sometimes this is what I would have for lunch!) THREE have 810 calories, 51 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 59 grams of carb, 29 grams of protein, 10 grams of fiber and 1250 mg sodium!!! YIKES. My "lunch" has 1620 calories, way way more than I should have all day! But, but, I say, it's veggies! Yeah, right. Faulty thinking. I know better now. No more fooling myself that way. Now I will be informed before I go to a restaurant and order something I "think" is good for me.

Better choices. It's all about knowing the truth and choosing better.

New Baby Steps

OK. Fat Daddy has lost 43 pounds since the end of May (Yay for him!). I've gained three. Three is much less than I thought, but it's still going in a direction I don't want to go. This weekend, I decided to re-evaluate what Baby Steps I was taking, because the ones I thought would be simple enough weren't working.

I'm already walking at least five days a week -- I do some light trotting about one day per week, but it takes a few days for my knees to recover from that. I'm adding a Baby Step of doing one FitDeck card per night every night. That will take about two minutes, if that -- I need to establish the habit. Then it will be easy to add more cards and get it to a good work out.

I've gotten away from keeping my food diary. I was doing very well when I wasn't using it to evaluate what I was eating. I'm going back to just logging what I eat.

I'll continue working through Body Clutter. I'm about half-way through, and I think it's useful.

I have a private blog I started a few months ago but have been irregular about posting to it. I'm going to post here about once a week to report on how well I've done in meeting these goals. I plan to re-evaluate at the beginning of November to determine what to do next.

Food Stuff

One of my goals is to eat healthy 80-90% of the time and allow a bit for special treats. But I also abhor food designed to make me think I'm eating healthier, when a reading of the label shows me they've replaced one unhealthy food for another unhealthy food and labeled it to make me think it's good for me. One example is "Fat-free mayonnaise". Read the label. The first ingredient is some type of sugar, probably high fructose corn syrup, but I don't have a jar around to double-check. How is that better for me? It's not.

I drive my husband crazy when I shop for food. I can spend serious time in the aisles reading labels and searching out foods made with healthy ingredients. They cost more, but not nearly as much as a doctor would charge to fix health problems caused by eating unhealthy junk. Like my youngest son said, "When I eat junk food, I eat GOOD junk food." He meant food like the Terra brand chips. Yes, they're fried chips. But they have some made from various veggies, as well as potato. And they're fried in healthy oil. My favorite to-die-for chips are cooked in olive oil and have a wonderful blend of herbs on them. They're a type of "junk food" I'd choose as part of that 10-20% treat food. I don't rationalize eating junk food made with healthy ingredients regularly by saying, "It's healthy. See--potatoes, olive oil, salt and herbs. No bad stuff." Just way too many calories if you eat a normal serving rather than the few chips they say is a serving on the label.

There is a point to all of this. I wrote a post about a very healthy fruit salad. Here's the link: Fruit Salad Post. At the bottom, I put a companion recipe that looks like it's a sabotage. Because it's totally healthy, except for the hollandaise on the top. This is how I'm learning to manage, because I don't have health problems that preclude doing it this way. I have the fruit salad, the roasted (or grilled veggies), the poached egg. All healthy, and prepared in a healthy way. Then, I put a small spoonful of hollandaise, enough to get the flavor in each bite--maybe a tablespoon or so. That's not too much in terms of calories and fat and stuff for a meal. The rest of the day, I'd avoid saturated fats and it works. It takes thinking ahead and planning, but I learned that the key to eating the foods I really love and don't want to completely get rid of is to change the way I prep them and not to pair high-calorie foods with high-calorie foods when I'm planning my menus.

Getting the tools we need

I won't belabor the point about my "come-to-Jesus" meeting with the doctor, other than to say that I've had to assess what tools I need to take the approach I need to take.

Here are some of the items I have purchased in addition to the prescriptions I've been given:

1. A black leatherbound journal. I appreciate quality materials and would much rather spend a few extra dollars for a special journal for tracking this journey than use a half-used spiral notebook I drug out of my files. For me, this elevates my mission to project status instead of doodles.

2. A special pen to be used only with the journal. Again, quality tools inspire me.

3. A Brita water filter pitcher so I can cut back on buying bottled water all the time and still be able to measure the amount of water I drink in a day. Good-tasting water goes down better than that with a twang.

4. A high-quality scale. I threw my old one away when I moved because it held so many bad memories. Now I have a spiffy new model that is very sleek and scientific-looking. It measures weight, percent body fat and percent body water. You know what I found out? One of my problems is that I'm severely dehydrated. We should have a percent body water of at least 50 percent, up to as much as 75 percent for those lean people with low body fat. I was at 41 percent. A quick test for dehydration: Pinch the skin on the back of your hand and see how long it takes to return to its normal state. Does it stay in a peak? DRINK!

5.High-quality food. Everyone has a plan. Pick one that appeals to you and makes GOOD SENSE following the food pyramid. We're all at a time in our lives when we need to make loving choices. McDonald's has improved but it's still not loving enough for us! Find someplace where you can get a great salad and visit them often. Or make your own, if you have time and great produce. Make it special.

6. Support. All I had to do was mention to a co-worker that things had not gone well at the doctor's. Now several of us at the office are able to get out for short walks during the day. Fortunately we work close to our downtown area and we can encorporate walks into our work day, too. For instance, for me to walk to city hall and back is about a mile, but it sure doesn't seem like it. We all need support, and God finds ways of providing it when we need it.

7. Prayer. Start the day asking for the strength to do things right just for today. This is one of the principles of the 12-step programs -- one day at a time. It's all we can live, so we might as well ask for spiritual help to make the best of that one day.

Sabotage

First, Tech, your banner prompted me to get another glass of water before starting this post -- it's a good thing.

I've reached a non-effective point in my efforts. I can give lip service to wanting to lose weight, but I'd have to say I almost actively resist doing what I know I need to do to lose weight. This is the worst self-sabotage I've experienced yet in my life. It used to be I'd get on a roll and eat right, be happy, weight would fall off, and then one day it was as if a switch flipped in my head, and it all stopped working.

Maybe the same is true now -- in January 2006, I switched to a vegetarian lifestyle and lost ten pounds in the first month. I mostly kept them off. I injured my knee in March of 2006, but it still stayed off. I had my knee surgery in late July. In September, weight began to creep on. I still did pretty well. By the time January 2007 rolled around, I showed a net loss of 3.2 pounds for 2006. Not something most people would say much about, but I typically gain 10 - 30 pounds in a year. Losing 3 was huge to me.

For 2007, I'm up 23.8 pounds. Something must change -- and it needs to be me. In my case, weight loss has always been mental. When I achieve an appropriate mental state about the matter, weight falls off. When that "switch" flips, I feel powerless to do anything to correct the situation. It's a long weekend, maybe it's a good time to reflect and seek the "good" place again.

What do you do to get "back on track"?

Stress=Eating -- Eating=Stress

I started over today. I reset the start weight on my scales this morning. I haven't weighed myself for awhile, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, so at least there was something positive about stepping on the scales. LOL

I've been in a funk lately, and I know it has been affecting my eating. Having a lot hanging over my head seems to do that to me. So it leads me to believe that if I can get back on a routine, that will help--a lot.

This weekend should be fairly quiet, perhaps I can use some of that time to figure out how I'm going to do this. :)

Exercise & Appetite & Exercise, again

I've been forced to be off my feet for about a week. I let my shoes get too worn out and pulled something in my left foot/heel. Financially, I can't afford shoes, what with my husband being out of work again, but I can't afford medical care even more. So, I spent about an hour online. I found a pair with no tax and no shipping charges. I figured that was the best deal I'd get and bought them. I learned one lesson--that if I want to exercise without breaks due to injuries, I have to be more aware of the wear in my shoes and replace them before they get that worn out. I'm planning to start building back up to my 3-mile walk next week.

Second lesson--not doing the walking affects my appetite--negatively. I tend to eat more when I don't walk. Which is weird, because you'd think it would be the opposite, since I need more food to fuel the workout. But I think what happens is that I get bored and overeat. When I'm walking regularly, I tend to eat closer to the right amount, rather than too much.

I picked up some exercise videos last summer. One was a set of yoga and Pilates DVDs that has both beginning and advanced sets of both types of workout. The other is the NY City Ballet DVD with both the intermediate and advanced workouts. Even if they say the first one is beginning, it isn't. You have to be in pretty good shape to do it.

But I can't do them in jeans. I need clothes that allow more movement. I'm temping for our church secretary this week while she's on vacation. I'm going to use a bit of that extra money to get some shorts or footless tights or leggings, whatever's cheapest, so I can start doing them soon. I'm noticing that I need to do a wider variety of exercise. I'm going to add beginning yoga and Pilates to my exercise regimen. When I get to the more advanced videos, I'll start the intermediate NY City Ballet workout. I know, I'm way too old for real ballet. But with some modifications, I could do the workout, if I were in better shape in terms of flexibility. So, I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

The next DVD I want is to replace my Richard Simmons Broadway tunes workout that uses resistance bands for strength training. I was really getting stronger when I used that tape, but it's disappeared. I haven't been able to find it since we moved. That's the other missing piece in my exercise program. I notice the difference when I do all three types of exercise versus focusing on only one or two. Each of them is easier, too, when I do all three types of exercise.

That's just my observations on how it works for me. YMMV, as they often, correctly, say.

What do we really want?

I think the most important thing we can do about losing weight is to decide if we really want to. We can talk about it all day, all night and all week, but if that talking is not followed by actions, then we've done nothing -- except maybe burn a few calories with our jaw muscles.

We have to ask ourselves a few questions:

Do we want to lose weight?

Are we willing to make the lifestyle changes that we will have to make to lose weight?

Is losing weight more important that the reasons we overeat?

What do we really want?

These questions have to be answered by each of us. And then we can decide what to do. If we decide that losing weight isn't more important that overeating, then we can make different choices accordingly. And if we decide that we do want to lose weight, then we must different choices, also.

I have a list of reasons as to why I want to lose weight. I refer to them when I'm discouraged. I've printed them off and put them on my fridge door on bright orange paper. It's a visual reminder of what my decision is and why I choose it.

What do you use to keep you on the straight and narrower?

Scary Update

The doctor's visit was not easy. In fact, it was very, very difficult. We went over lab tests from the last visit. To quote the doctor, loosely, death is reaching out to grab me. My liver is affected. My kidneys are affected.

She's added two more new medications to my routine for now and referred me to a diabetes educator. She's urged (demanded) that I start journaling. She's urged (demanded) that I find a support system of some sort.

And, what surprised me most, is she urged me to check out the principles of 12-step programs. Yes, she sees poor eating habits as an addiction and said I need to get sober.

She said I literally am in a fight for my life right now. That's a sobering thought.

She said that I need to journal and plan and pray each day to do my best, and then turn it over to God.

I could use your help with that part, please.

Back to the doctor Tuesday

I have a follow-up doctor's visit tomorrow morning. I'm not worried that I gained weight -- if anything I think I lost a pound since the last visit. We'll see. I think this will be the great con-fab of 2007 where she sort of starts directing me to better living -- with luck that will include some diabetes education, but honestly, Tech has been wonderful at that. I'm interested in seeing if she prescribes medication for the diabetes. Surely that will be a consideration considering the lab test results. I'm also curious about the results of the EKG which she did not mention in her letter. I hope the visit is not all gloom and doom, but realistically I have no reason to hope for anything else.

Tonight, though, I am going to focus on cleaning up my dining room and trying to get settled at least in that one space. I have a free evening and I think creating a dining sanctuary is a very good use of my time and effort. I want a sacred space that invites me to take greater care of my body.

Photos will be posted on my personal blog of the before, during and after progression. Stay tuned!

1st poll results

What's your favorite treat?
3 (27%): Ice Cream
2 (18%): Chocolate
1 (9%): Cake or Pie
2 (18%): A side of beef
3 (27%): I'm not telling, but it's naughty
Total
11 voters

Bye-Bye WW

I cancelled my Weight Watchers membership. I just figured I've at this long enough that I know the program inside and out, I haven't been going to the meetings because I've been busy or just don't want to go out. The meetings aren't very close, so I always want a whole list of errands to run if I'm going that far.

Anyway, I figured my $40 for WW can be spent at a gym, taking up bowling again, or on my renewed love of reading mysteries. :)