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649848 tn?1534633700

Sunday Weigh-In September 23, 1018

Good morning everyone.  As usual, it appears to be a bright sunny day in the Sunshine State, but if recent weather patterns hold true, we'll have a shower before the day is done.

There hasn't been a lot going on this week so there's not much to report.  I guess the biggest thing is that I'm trying to decide on a weekend to have a yard sale.  I'm at one of those points where things seem to be too cluttered and it's time to clear it all out.

I read last week, somewhere, that your house is a reflection of yourself and if your house is cluttered, your mind is, most likely, cluttered, as well... Of course, there are many psychologists that would say this isn't true and for the most part, I have to agree that it isn't because there are times that circumstances prevent us from keeping things exactly as we want them; however, for myself, there are times that the house and my mind seem to become over-cluttered at the same time and becomes overwhelming.  If I take time to de-clutter the house, the things residing in my mind, often, become clearer and easier to deal with...maybe it's simply because I've removed the stress of the home clutter so I can concentrate on the mind clutter.  That's a good therapy subject...

Anyway, I've got a lot of things boxed up and ready for a yard sale - in fact, the boxes are taking up a good share of my guest room (it's a good thing I don't have guests very often) and I'm ready to get them out - so back to picking a date for my yard sale... I had thought to get it done in September, but that hasn't happened.  October was looking good, but there seem to be things going on to take up most weekends.  Now, we're looking at November; if I wait too late into November, we're getting into the holidays and I want it done before the holidays, as I have some things that people might want to use for Christmas gifts... Haha - it looks like I've just settled on a weekend or two... lol  Maybe the last weekend in October or the first weekend in November.  That gives me plenty of time go through closets/cupboards and come up with more things I can live without - yes, I know there are a lot more things in this house that I don't need than what I have packed up!!  lol  

So now that's out of the way, let's move on to the reason for my post - my weigh-in...unfortunately, I'm up by 0.8 lbs this morning, but that could very well be different by later today.  I'm not sure what's going on now, but my weight has been all over the map this week, ranging from 2 lbs up from last week to 2 lbs down, so I'm not inclined to get very excited about it.  

There has been quite a bit of relationship stress, plus I haven't been sleeping well - last night I didn't get to sleep until almost 3:00 am, which means I got approximately 3.5 hrs of sleep for the night.  Tests have shown that I have impaired adrenal function so I can't really say that cortisol levels were too high, but it's a possibility.  Without adequate restful sleep, weight loss doesn't take place.

I've been stepping up my walking lately so I can get my muscles used to it before my winter neighbor comes back from Oregon on Oct 2.  In the process, I did meet a new neighbor while I was out walking... she's a walker too, so we had a nice walk together. It's nice to know there's someone else in the neighborhood that walks besides me, so I have someone to meet up with when my Oregon neighbor isn't here in the summertime.  One nice thing is that the new neighbor I met walks in the evening, which I love doing this time of year because it cools off nicely at dusk and is a great time to get outside.

Anyway, I'm up by that pesky 0.8 lbs, so it's a new week and I'll have to work on getting rid of it.  I know I did do some stress eating - chocolate and potato chips.  I love chips, but I don't even really care for chocolate so I'm not even sure why I'm eating it.  Well, yeah I do - as I said - it's stress eating.  We did go to the local flea market yesterday and I hit the produce aisle for a couple of ice watermelons and some great looking tomatoes.  I already have plenty of other produce in the fridge/freezer; I just need to eat it...

Okay - that's me!!  What about y'all?  How has your week been?  I hope you've all been more successful than I've been.  If not, like I said, it's a new week and we're ready to give it another shot...

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~
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134578 tn?1693250592
I'm seeing quite a temperature range in Florida in the winter, with things getting pretty cool at night in the panhandle (and northern Florida) but not getting lower than the 60s further south. is that right?

My sympathy to anyone who needs to keep the weight down and can't do the one-two punch of improving diet while exercising a lot.  But if I did have to do it because of a medical condition, in my own idiosyncratic case what would make a difference is  increasing my intake of olive oil. I notice a difference in cravings when I add more good fats; it enables me to lighten up on carbs. The carbs' effects on my body are really obvious. Weeks when I've eaten chips, sweets (cookies not my downfall, candy can sometimes be) and especially when I've drunk a lot of Dr. Pepper, I may as well forget weighing in, it is going to be bad news. But there is also a strong stress connection that I'm noticing more and more. For me, stress = belly fat. So I'm working now on handling stresses in my life. Easier said than done, but baby steps.
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There is quite a temperature range throughout the state... right now, our lows are in the low 70's, but during the winter (Jan/Feb and even into March) we get into the 30's most of the time and during a cold winter, we've been known to get into the low 20's and upper teens.  I'm sure you've heard of drastic freezes here when citrus crops were taken out by the cold.  They used to use smudge pots to keep the trees warm, but they can't do that anymore, so the only way to save them is to freeze them in, which is running sprinkles on them which freezes the water around the leaves and insulates them.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't...  When you get way down south, that's where you have the warmer temps that will stay in the 60's maybe even 70's in a real mild winter.

I'm with you on the good fats... my doctor had me on a diet for almost 3 years in which he wanted on protein shakes in addition to regular meals because I don't absorb protein, which causes my blood protein levels to be low all the time.  Last summer, I had a special blood test and I don't remember now, without looking it up, but there was a particular amino acid that I was deficient in.  Anyway, the whole time I was doing the protein shakes, I just kept gaining and gaining.  I put on almost 20 lbs over what I was when I started the diet... I was frantic and I kept reading about fats actually being good for you so I ditched the protein diet and went for higher fats - mostly coconut and olive oils, along with avocado, but I also stepped up my meat, egg and veggie intake some as well and dropped off a lot of fruits.  In about 3 months, I'd lost 26 lbs, but then I stalled and couldn't lose anymore, even with the higher fat.  

That was 3 yrs ago and ever since then, I've bounced around within 5-7 lbs of that weight (higher, not lower).  A lot of times, it's fluid retention, but then a lot of times, it's because I ate chips or something.  I'm very sensitive to sodium - even a tiny amount of table salt on my food will make me swell up like a balloon, but I can use a small amount of pink Himalayan Sea Salt.  

I worked outside all day yesterday and today, plus did a good walk both days and ate well - would you believe, this evening, I'm down 2.4 lbs from yesterday morning??  I'm almost always heavier in the evening than I am in the morning, but not today.  I'll take it, but I'm afraid of what the scale will say in the morning...

Your stress = belly fat would be due to cortisol.  I have a problem with that, as well as insulin resistance.  I do take some herbals (adaptogens) to help with adrenal issues (I have adenomas on both adrenal glands).  The problem is that I forget to take them too often...
Avatar universal
Okay, I'm gaining a lot weight now, folks.  Can't exercise much anymore, too much pain.  Too old for the six hours of PT that's been keeping me going for years now.  Eating is one of the only things left I can really enjoy and I've always been able to do it because I always was very active and born slim -- only a medication ever caused me to be overweight before, the same med that killed my brain and body when I stopped taking it.  Exercise was all I had left for fun and now I either get a bunch of surgeries or just suffer.  So I'm now in the weight loss boat, and I don't want to be in that boat.  Phooey.  And one other thing -- Barb, up here in Virginia it rained all day, it still hasn't stopped, it isn't going to stop, and it's hardly stopped since winter.  In order to mow the lawn you pick the day that has under a 60% chance of rain even if the lawn doesn't need it, which of course kills the lawn.  I grew up in So. Cal., the real sunshine state, but I'm now believing Florida really must be the sunshine state.  Here, we're talking arks, if you know what I mean.  Peace, all.  
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Sorry to hear about your medical predicament.  I know what it feels like to have a condition in which weight gain seems imminent and choices for losing are few.  I was born slim (small) too.  I'm 5 foot tall and never weighed more than 105-106 (usually closer to 95-100) until I was 58 yrs old and my thyroid died.  Well, during one of my pregnancies, I went up to 120 lbs with a full term baby.  

In view of that, it's very frustrating when everyone's first words are "Just lose some weight - you'll feel a lot better..."  Sure, I'll feel better, but losing isn't as easy as it's cracked up to be when your metabolism isn't working like it should, for whatever reason - whether it's medication related or hormone related...

As you know, it isn't always how much you eat, it's "what" you eat, as well.  But then you also know that as we get older, we have to reduce the amounts to match the less exercise (if we get less exercise).  For me, anxiety has been running kind of high lately and snacking (chips/chocolate) has become too prominent in the diet.  I'm trying to rein that in.  I did well yesterday, with one small piece of chocolate and no chips - I don't really care for chocolate, but chips have always been my favorite...

I'm looking into getting back into my yoga again... I stopped several years ago for personal reasons; now I'm trying to push myself back into it, but I realize that pushing isn't going to help.  I have to do it because I want to do, not forcing myself to do it...There are yoga poses for every ability (even chair yoga) and it's excellent for both anxiety/relaxation and inflammation.  When I was doing it regularly, I did even lose a little weight and my muscles felt so much longer and stronger...

We did end up getting a shower yesterday, 0.02", but I was still able to get out and go for a walk at dusk.  Mowing lawn isn't that difficult here, because we mow in the early morning before it gets hot and we often get our showers in the afternoon/evening.  I have a sister-in-law in Virginia and she's had a lot of rain, too.  It will stop, eventually - probably when the snow flies... lol

Don't forget - the nickname for Florida is "The Sunshine State".  That doesn't mean that we don't ever have dark, dreary, rainy days, because we do.  Our "rainy season" is, typically in the winter - Jan/Feb (sometimes carrying into March), which is also when it's coldest here.  This year, we've gotten the summer showers that we used to get almost daily, but hadn't been getting.  Up until this year, it's been really dry (drought) conditions for several years - the only thing that was growing was weeds and we didn't really have to mow grass, just knock the weeds down once in a while.  This year we've had to mow lawns on a weekly basis and sometimes they could stand it more often.
We've seen massive changes in weather here in the DC area as well.  For years and years it was completely predictable -- hot and humid in the summer every day with a thunderstorm often in the early evening.  Us runners would often wait for that thunderstorm and go out right after when it was cool.  In the spring, which lasted about a couple of weeks, it would rain and then it was summer.  Not much spring.  Fall is beautiful and warm but not hot.  In winter it snowed regularly but not heavily and it was cold.  Pretty simple to plan for.  A few years ago, climate change hit, and it's been more dramatic since then.  One winter we had three snows of several feet within a couple weeks, and I think it was the daily shoveling that started me breaking down because I would then go right out and run or go to the gym.  That made the lawn go weird, killing what grass we had and leaving an interesting collection of weeds that has changed with the weather changes since.  Now we have almost no snow in the winter, but often get ice instead which is deadly.  Summer is usually drought, which you really don't get around here -- it's a swampy area.  Spring is actually nice and longer.  Fall is still fall.  Weeds and lawns tend to grow very fast here, so you have to keep mowing because of the humidity -- even when it doesn't rain there's a lot of moisture.  But it's much hotter now -- used to be in the eighties with 80% humidity every day, now it's in the nineties and until this year the humidity went down and we had drought.  Again, you just don't have drought here.  But this year has been the oddest thing, it rained a lot in the winter, rained all spring, and has rained all but two weeks in June this summer.  Because of all the other things that have to be tended to in the yard I have to mow and string trim and then get on my hands and knees along the fences and then cut the fast growing stuff we actually like.  The trees have gone nuts.  Now, during the many years I lived in southern Calif., it was the same almost every day -- hot and dry.  No rain.  Heat wave around Christmas.  Desert winds blowing in during the height of winter.  Not to mention fires and earthquakes.  When I lived in No. Calif. in the SF Bay Area, cool all the time, rained all winter and spring, but more of a constant drizzle, summer depended on what neighborhood you lived in.  But still predictable.  Not anymore.  It rains there now a lot when it rains and never when it doesn't.  The high Sierras sometimes get little snow.  It's both hotter and cooler and there's even some humidity.  But the worst thing about living in VA is the mosquitoes.  A few years ago the normal ones got replaced by ones from Asia, and they bite all day.  The bites hurt more than itch.  They're clever -- they hide on the floor of your car and bite you on the ankles.  I have to wear insect repellent to work in the yard.  It's just not easy living here, but it was a lot easier when I didn't co-own a home.
Also, you have to mow the lawn until almost December now because of the warming trend.  Which means you have to rake leaves first because you can't mulch that many with a lawn mower, at least not with the environmentally friendly ones I use.  I dwell on this because it's really hard to rest a hurt body when you have to work hard on the yard, and as for mowing the morning, that's actually bad for the lawn but that wouldn't bother me, I try to kill it anyway so I don't have to mow as often.  It's not really grass anyway.  But my schedule flipped due to the drug and other medical problems and I ended up sleeping in the daytime.  Doesn't leave much light for yard work and in the mornings I'm on the floor in the living room doing PT before I go to bed.  What a life.  Peace, all.
Sounds like it's time to go with some  of that barkdust-and-3-foot tiles look in at least some parts of the yard, for less maintenance overall. Not that this will solve a huge part of the problem, but around here pretty much everyone with a fence has made a skinny pathway of barkdust along it on both sides and presumably under it, I think by putting that black landscape fabric in and then covering it with the barkdust (though I wouldn't be surprised if some is actually just 3-mil black plastic under the barkdust). The fences look OK trimmed out that way (i.e., without grass growing up to them) and it's a lot easier to maintain.
True.  The yard did have protective tarp underneath but it started coming up when our neighbors built a new fence and other neighbors borrowed our yard to cut down a tree in their yard and the company tore up my yard.  It needs total replacing and replanting, but to do that would mean no sleep for me for an extended period of time, and it costs a ton of money to do that much work.  Because of my problems caused by the drug and a failed prostate surgery I ended up sleeping in the daytime.  So I do the work myself, which wasn't a problem until I hurt my hips a few months ago.  That was the last straw.  Up until then working in the yard was about the only constructive thing I did anymore.  But truly, if I were myself, I wouldn't care less about the yard -- not really my thing.  
134578 tn?1693250592
I'm down a pound. Not much sinning with the Doctor this week, is the most obvious reason why.  But the sinning is probably the symptom not the source -- a nice, ice-cold Dr. Pepper only calls to me when I'm under stress, especially if running errands in a rush. Likely the cortisol from stress, not the sweet pop alone, is what makes weight stick. :) And this week, despite my son's very rough ride starting middle school, we are setting plans to do something about it. That takes a stressful problem and feels more like it's beginning to be solved, an empowering thing that the opposite of stress.

We've done what we immediately can to ease our son's school problems -- driving him to school instead of subjecting him to the obscenities on the bus, making his lunch so he doesn't have to stand in the long line -- but we are also thinking of moving to the better district nearby where (reputedly) the kids act nicer in school. We never intended to live forever in the tiny little house we bought so our son could walk to elementary school; the plan had always been to sell when he changed schools, to always be in walking distance of his school for convenience' sake. (And then to sell the final house in the chain to finance his college education, while old Mom and Dad toddle back to the family farm into our old age. Eh eh eh.)  Though this plan was only for the convenience of our son being near school (rather than to get him out of an undesirable school), moving now would work for that too. Because we had long intended to move for school reasons, it's no shock to think of doing it now. If we're lucky we can find a house in walking distance of the new middle school; it's pretty tight because it's a popular district. We did see one, but it was such a train-wreck that my husband said the only way he would take that house is if he were given $500,000 as a payment and the house for free. (He is not fond of "fixers.")

Anyway, husband and I have had fun looking at houses this past week. Finding out that our little house (which we bought with little thought of resale value) is worth more than we thought has been a lift, and looking at houses is more fun if there is any reality that you might buy one, and feeling like we might manage to solve our son's problem has been satisfying also. It hasn't been a perfect week -- mornings getting a crying boy to school who is saying over and over that he just doesn't want to go, are taking a toll on all three of us. And I took my husband house-hunting yesterday and he was in simply a crap-fierce downer of a mood and took it out on me for the first half of the trip, after which he cheered up a lot because looking in the new district was lots of fun. But even so, I think things were upbeat enough this week to explain the weight loss, small though it is. :) At least it's the right direction.
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Congratulations... you're making headway on several fronts.  

I'm glad to hear that you've got some concrete plans to solve the issue of your son's school problems.  It's not easy when your kids are having problems and there's nothing you can do to help them.  I've been through that and it can be heart-breaking.  

I'm sure that easing up on your son's problem is helping to ease up on your own stress.  That does help with the cortisol issue and ultimately the weight.  It probably makes sleeping better, as well, and as I noted, good sleep is necessary for weight loss as much as a good diet, exercise and everything else.  

I hope this week is just as good for you... Perhaps this will be the week you'll find the "non-fixer upper" your husband loves, close to the school so your son can walk and you'll be ready to move by Thanksgiving...  :-)
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