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649848 tn?1534633700

Sunday Weigh-In September 30, 1018

Good morning... How is everyone doing this morning?  It's too early to tell what the day is shaping to be like here; we had some rain last night, but I don't know if we're getting more today or not.  There were some stars out when I got up this morning at 3:30 am (yes, I've been up that long), but it was cloudy, too and I couldn't see the moon.

It's been pretty dry this week and we decided not to mow the lawns because they're starting to turn brown from the heat - we're still getting into the 90's and it's not forecast to start cooling off until the end of October... ughhh.

There hasn't been a whole lot going on this week; it's been pretty calm, with just a couple of stressful periods.  I had a dental appointment on Friday and my husband didn't have a lot going on so he was at loose ends, which is usually not a good thing.  :-)  We (I... lol) like to go rummaging around in thrift/antique stores, so I made a list of stores I'd never been to in a city near us and we checked out a few after my appointment.  A couple of the stores didn't pan out, but then we found a couple we didn't plan on, as well, so it worked out.

The weekend has been quiet, but who knows what today will bring?  It does look like the sun is going be shining, at least for part of the day, so that's a positive...

Weight and diet/exercise-wise, I've done well.  I've continued to maintain my diet and walk every evening.  Even though I'm not walking a long way, I'm getting out and moving; that's better than I did for a good part of the summer. My weight is down by 1.8 lbs from last week, which is good.  Strangely, it was down by 3.0 lbs yesterday so I gained 1.2 lbs overnight... I'd guess that has to be fluid since I didn't eat over 3500 calories yesterday/last night and I did exercise so even if I had I'd have used up some of them. :-) Amazing how that happens!!

We'll be picking our winter neighbors up at the airport on Tuesday and I'm sure by the end of the week, we'll be back in full swing with our walks.  Last year, we only walked every other day because of the neuropathy in my feet.  I'm sure we'll continue on that schedule as it's necessary for me to pace myself in order to make sure I don't exacerbate the pain because once it gets too bad, I can't get it under control again.  Anyway, I've only been doing about 0.5 or slightly more/day and we'll be doing a couple miles each time we walk, plus I plan to keep up my evening walk as well. Once I step up the exercise, that should help take off a few more pounds; we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, that's me - what's going on with you?  How are y'all doing?  I hope you met some goals, whatever they might have been for the week. Let us hear about them or let us know if you need some help, motivation or support.

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~
8 Responses
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495284 tn?1333894042
Please dont forget that it is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Take the time to check yourself and if you havent had a mammogram for awhile get in there and have one.
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2 Comments
I had my mammogram in June and it came back with the same results as all the others; for some reason, I didn't trust this one... it is what it is.

How's your daughter doing?
I will update tomorrow on how she is doing.  It is late and i need some sleep!!  Brb, i did send you a message about thyroid issues with my other daughter.
495284 tn?1333894042
The chickens are busy spending their time in my driveway!  I called City Hall and they told me maybe i could try being neighborly and asking them to keep their chickens in their yard.  Ya that is going to work.....god forbid you would send someone over there and tell them the rules of owning fine feathered friends.  Maybe i could be "neighborly" and invite them over for chicken noodle soup served on a pile of feathers!!  lol

It was in the middle 80's today and humid.  Tonight it is in the middle 30's and chilly! Nothing like a 50 degree difference in a matter of hours.  Had wind gusts of 59 mph.

Hubby had grilled pork chops and peas waiting when i got home from work tonight.  Tasted good!  

Moved 4 ton of dog food twice today at work.  Had to take it off trailer by hand and stack on pallets and then had to take it inside the store, take off pallets as they are too big to get thru the store, load them on carts and then stack them in the middle of the store.  It is our famous buy one get one free event.  One customer came in and bought 10 bags.  My arms feel like they are going to fall off tonight.  Good thing i had my sassy bra on!!
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4 Comments
Do you have a dog?  If so, just hang out in the front yard a couple of days, that'll get rid of the chickens coming over to your house.
Paxiled...She has a couple of dogs and the chickens are driving them bonkers...
Sarah - maybe you should ask City Hall why they have the ordinance that says chickens have to be penned if they won't enforce it.  Do you have an animal control department?   Try them; see if they'll come deal with the chickens; otherwise, "forget" to close the gate and let the dogs deal with them...  :-)

I've been hearing about the cold nighttime temps up there; just hope you don't moisture or it will be in the form of snow.  Wow - 59 mph gusts - that's a tropical storm for us!!

4-ton of dog food is a lot.  Reminds me of when I was working and we had water outages and I had to deliver hundreds of cases of bottled water to a school with 1500 kids for a week... I sympathize with you for sure.  Thank goodness for those sassy bras, that's for sure...  :-)
I was just thinking of my deeply lamented dog, which died a couple years ago but it still seems like yesterday sometimes.  Before Paxil wiped me out, my wife and I used to go every fall to the Blue Ridge, and stayed in a B&B on a farm that raised organic chickens.  My dog tried to attach one once.  Dogs love eating chicken.  If my dog were in my front yard, off leash as she always was, those chickens wouldn't be there long -- she wouldn't actually have attacked one, she had no killer instinct at all despite being half German Shepherd, but the animals she chased didn't know that.  But dogs are different, mine was extremely well-controlled and just had a thing for chicken.
495284 tn?1333894042
The roast tasted so good.  I had a small portion of meat and a potato the size of an egg but loaded up on carrots!!  I have to be careful when i eat beef or i pay for it later!!

As for the snow........i will still know what is underneath or i will walk back there and run right into it!!  Maybe the chickens could sit on top!!
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Oh yummmmm... the roast sounds delicious.  Fortunately, I don't have a problem eating beef, which is a good thing, because I always have low protein levels so anything I can do to get/keep them up is good.

Ah, so you aren't good at convincing yourself that a clay/cement pile covered in snow is really a snow pile, huh??  It does take a good imagination, doesn't it?   Well, there you go - "Chickens on the mountain" instead of "King on the mountain"... lol
Avatar universal
Where I live your supposed to only have 1,200 calories a day  when dieting, if that helps at all
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2 Comments
Calories can't be determined arbitrarily; it depends on the person and there are several things to be considered when determining the number of calories each person needs, including age and activity level.  A very large person will need more calories, but the more weight they lose, the fewer calories they will need.  

In addition, it's not always about the number of calories, it often has as much/more to do with what one is eating than how much.   If one is eating a lot of sugary foods, bread, pasta, rice, and other simple carbs, they'll need to eat fewer calories than if they're eating healthy things like fatty fish, olive oil, avocados, nuts, vegetables, etc.

It also depends on the amount of exercise one gets because if one is exercising, they're using up calories.  If one is not exercising they won't need as many calories because they aren't using them for fuel.

There are formulas used to calculate the number of calories each person needs.  I find it easier not to count calories, but just to eat sensibly and "try" not to snack and eat a lot of foods that are processed or not good for me.  Sometimes it works, but not always...  :-)
Calories are a really bad way to determine diet.  They are a factor in weight but as Barb has alluded to, the most important factor is how you metabolize what you eat.  I keep giving the same example on here but here it goes again:  a piece of fatty salmon is very high in calories, but nobody gets fat eating salmon.  White bread has a lot fewer calories than salmon, but because it metabolizes almost immediately into sugar, if you don't burn it off very quickly it will store as fat.  Low calorie diets are also a bit of a fraud, because if you maintain that level you might not end up getting all the nutrients the body needs for optimal health.  If you exercise regularly, you will need to consume more calories not fewer.  You'll need it for muscle building and energy.  The most important factor in what we weigh other than heredity is what we eat, not necessarily how much we eat and how much we're able to move -- this doesn't actually necessitate formal exercise, it could just be walking or biking everywhere instead of driving, as they do in European countries.  As for snow, for me winter is fine even if it doesn't snow because it kills the lawn and you don't have to mow it anymore.  No weeds, no nothing, no work to do out there and no mosquito bites.  Right now my lawn is partly growing with what grass still exists in my yard, which is a botanist's dream but not much to look at, but the weeds and the odd stuff has actually died not because of summer heat but because of the incredible amount of rain we had this year -- it got drowned.  Fortunately, we can stop building the Ark because autumn has actually arrived and the rain has stopped for the first time since spring.  Unfortunately, autumn has gotten much warmer and lasts a lot longer with climate change here and now the lawn keeps growing into November, when it would have been well into winter and some snow a few years ago.  For the last few years I'm out there having to rake leaves in order to mow on Halloween while the trick-or-treaters are coming to the door.  Just a few years ago the lawn stopped growing in late September, but not anymore.  Oh, wait, there is no climate change, I forgot!
134578 tn?1693250592
Well, if you don't get a jackhammer out there to chip it up so it can be put in the trailer soon, you can just pretend it's a big pile of snow that someone shoveled off the roof. That excuse is good for the whole winter. I was awfully happy a couple of years ago when we got a real dumping of snow, I could pretend that under it, the back yard looked fine.
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1 Comments
Sometimes I wish we got snow here, so it would hide the eyesores I don't have time/energy to take care of.  I, too, could convince myself that underneath the snow I have a lovely yard.  Or, if not for the snow, I could be out making it look the way I want it...  :-)
495284 tn?1333894042
You would both be green with envy if you could see my backyard.  At the end of the yard i have a very fine pile of clay and cement.  When hubby trenched the basement that is where all the "debris" went.  Now it has hardened to almost a cement stage and fall is upon us.  We also have half the sheds crap (rakes, wood, shovels etc) leaning against the shed.  Still havent figured out why they arent IN the shed.  There is also a trailer with some of the clay and cement on it.  Our son in law wants the clay for his yard and now that the stuff has gotten so hard it is taking awhile to chip away at it...did i mention fall is upon us and it could snow at any given time here in the great state of Minnesota?  It's just an ungodly mess out there.  Our yard isnt very big to begin with.

We have new additions to the neighborhood....ghetto chickens!!  The neighbors have 3 of them and they appear to be "free range".  City ordinance says they can have 4 total but have to be fenced in. Guess they missed that small detail.  Our dogs have been going nuts day in and day out as the fine feathered friends come right up to the fence and drive them nuts.  Explaining to the dogs that they are their friends hasnt worked so well!!  Never a dull moment in the ghetto.

As for my weight i am down 1 lb total for the last couple weeks.  I am about chickened out so tomorrow i am putting a beef roast with carrots in the crock pot. (No i didnt eat the neighbors flock)

The forum has been so quiet lately so have been going around to different ones and checking it out.  Seems most of the communities are slow right now.  I dont know what the answer is but i will continue doing what i know and trying to help those who want it.

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1 Comments
I agree with Annie... pretty soon you'll have that nice white dusting of snow and it will just look like you got more snow than the rest of the neighborhood.  When you start getting blizzards (come on, we both know you will... lol), you can dump all the excess shoveled snow back there and it will be right at home.  I hope the shovels get put in the shed so you don't have to dig them out from under the snow when you need them to shovel that sh!!... :-)

Oh - free-range chickens; how nice.  You know if you make a little hole in your fence and they come on in, it's really not your fault if the dogs get them; the neighbors really "are" supposed to have them penned after all.  Sorry, just kidding - I'd not let my dogs (if I had any) get my neighbors chickens... lol  

Anyway, congratulations on your weight loss; you've done really well sticking with your diet.  I don't blame you for getting tired of chicken (are you sure you didn't eat the neighbor's chickens? lol).  I guess we all get tired of the same stuff day in and day out.  That beef roast with carrots sounds pretty good; my husband made one with carrot and potatoes, last week, but he just did it in the oven - pretty tasty, though I shouldn't have eaten the potatoes...

Yeah, all the forums are pretty quiet.  I think we're all doing what the same thing you're doing...
649848 tn?1534633700
COMMUNITY LEADER
Oh my, if I had a quarter for every pair of comfy shoes I've bought, I'd have a nice little nest egg right there.  The problem is that most shoes don't really help a whole lot with neuropathy - at least with mine, it seems.  The easiest way I've found to describe my neuropathy is to say that it feels like my feet are wrapped in bags of hot coals up to my ankles and every step I take feels like the coals are being pounded into my feet... gory, huh?? lol   I have yet to find anything that has enough to cushion my feet against the impact of a 2-mile walk more than one day at a time... I need a day in between to let them recuperate.  

That said, I'm the eternal optimist and always on the lookout for that magical pair of shoes that will do the trick so if the catalog you get has a website, you're welcome to let me know because I'm sure willing to take a look, just in case there's something that will work...

So it sounds like you're looking at more than one middle school for your son now?  That's good that you aren't limiting yourselves to a single area.  You're bound to find just the place you want in the best school district.  Is it helping your son to cope any better knowing that you're trying to find something in a different district or does he not know that yet?

I'm sorry to hear about your weight gain, but a short fling with the good doctor for comfort might not be out of line...  We all tend to lean on our "best friends" in time of need.  :-)  I'm sure things will calm down soon and you'll be able to kick the doctor to the curb again.  You're lucky you had the early losses to sustain you now.

Oh, I love landscaping - at least planning the job.  lol   The problem is that I never have enough money to carry out what I want to have done, so I end up doing it myself.  You know landscaping is back-breaking work... We did some this summer and still have some rock to bring in, but decided that we're too old to be doing stuff like that in 95°+ weather.  We'll finish it when it cools off a bit in the fall.  One advantage we have is that we don't have to worry about snow covering up our project...

Good luck getting everything done, especially that school district to get their swale area (is that what we call a DRA - drainage retention area?) cleaned out... If that was in Florida, DEP would be on them to have it cleaned out all the time and you wouldn't even know it was there... Ahhh, but the landscaping will be fun!!  :-)
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134578 tn?1693250592
Do you have great shoes to support your feet? I somehow got on a foot-catalogue list, every couple of months here comes a glossy with all kinds of comfortable-looking shoes and special stuff for people with neuropathy. The shoes look great, even to someone like me that doesn't suffer from the problem but just gets sore feet. They would be just the thing when I'm up and standing all day at my son's old school, which evidently has cement beneath the linoleum. You might also get more miles by replacing your shoes. My husband, a runner, says it makes a big difference; says shoes break down in subtle ways and the feet feel it. (He buys new shoes on a regular rotation, like buying new car tires.)

This has been an eventful week but stressful, trying to deal with our son's unhappiness with his school. I've looked at properties, talked to kindly but crusty landlords, gone to school open houses, spoken to my son's old principal from last year, checked out three different middle schools, talked to kids out the car window about whether they like their school, etc. As a result of running around doing things I don't like, my illicit doctor, Dr. Pepper, has been in my life. No surprise, I'm up a pound. Thanks to the early losses in this challenge, I'm still down 4, but since the intent was to possibly lose 10, it's time to come to reality, yet again.

One project that should be kind of fun next week is that I'm calling in a landscaper to do our tiny, ratty back yard at our little house. We never bothered to do anything to it, it doesn't show from anywhere (fenced with a high fence) and after spending a boatload of money to get the house in shape in the first place, I just didn't have the heart to reach for the wallet again. But if we are considering trying to move to a neighborhood where my son doesn't cry every morning about having to go to the local school, it's time to do that last little bit. Even for ourselves, we would like it; we've been looking at crabgrass too long. Landscaping the hankie-sized front yard when we moved in it cost five grand. I can't imagine the back yard will cost less, even if we don't do much besides a new lawn and some attractive tiles with river rock in between.  I have to talk to a geotech company first to find out why the neighbor's fence is sagging towards us and the doors are sticking -- landscaping might be the second thing to do after some stabilization work. And I've got to reach out to the school district, which owns the swale behind us. Its bushy trees are hanging over our back fence and half of the yard, making it look even smaller. It would be nice to have one part of my life where getting something done didn't depend on several different things happening first (presumably that is why the yard isn't done yet) but the reward in this case will be a pretty back yard to look at for the first time in 6 years.
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649848 tn?1534633700
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