Sunday Weigh in December 11, 2022

[Barb135]

Good afternoon... yeah, I know - I'm posting late again!!   I've spent the day making a box in my woodworking shop for a contest for our woodworking club.   It's the first box I've ever attempted to make and I have no chance of winning the contest, because other members make them them all the time but you gotta start somewhere - besides, the more entries, the higher the payout, so the winner will get an extra $10 just because I'm entering.  :-)

So how is everyone doing?  I supposed you're all into the holidays, shopping, decorating, etc.  We put up our big outdoor tree the day before Thanksgiving and I put up the indoor tree last week.  I probably won't do a lot more decorating.   The more stuff I put out, the more I have to put away!!  :-)

I finally caught up with all the pen orders and they've been delivered.  I sold about 30 of them for Christmas gifts, so I was pretty pleased with that.  I probably won't be making a lot in the near future because I have a lot made.  Once the holidays are over, I probably won't sell a lot either.  

I also volunteered to make some Christmas cards for a card exchange that our calligraphy guild is doing.  I said I'd make 4 cards and, although they gave fits, I did get them done and will try to mail them tomorrow.  Now that I've done those, I need to turn my attention to my regular Christmas cards and get those in the mail.  From what I'm reading/hearing, they have to be mailed by the 17th if you want them delivered by Christmas... I better get a move on!!  

As you can see, I'm not lacking projects to get done!!  

I've, recently, been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, with muscle wasting in my hands, so I'll be seeing a hand specialist on the 23rd.   That's why I had so much trouble getting my Christmas cards made - my hands just won't do what my brain tells them to.  

I also had an MRI on my right foot to see what the mass on the top of my foot could be.  It turns out it's a multilocuted ganglion cyst, which I understand means it has multiple "roots" that go deep into my tendons.  I've also got a tear in one tendon and possible tear in another tendon.   I had major surgery on that foot 30 yrs ago and it's served me well, but I guess it's done.  

I haven't heard from doctor about a plan of action (if any) on my foot, but the last time I saw him, he seemed to think I'd end up with surgery on both hands, as well as my foot.  Of course, it won't all be done at once and I'm guessing I'll have to do some PT before anything else happens.  

So I've learned that walking isn't the best thing for my torn tendons and I'm planning to go back to doing yoga.  I have several dvd's and will probably start with chair yoga to help with balance and gaining strength.  Fortunately, my neighbor (walking partner) isn't here right now, but she'll be disappointed that I won't be able to walk with her every day when she comes back.

Okay, so that was the long way around the weight issue.  The other day (Thursday, I think), I was down about 5 pounds from last week's weigh in and yesterday, I was back up by 2 pounds... My math indicates that's a loss of 3 pounds.  I know my calorie intake doesn't vary enough to gain/lose 5 pounds in a day or two so I know it has to be fluid.  Just looking at my feet, I can tell when my weight will be up/down.  

I'm going to claim a 3 pound loss this week, but I'm really back where I was, holding steady a few weeks ago.   It gets pretty frustrating, because I can never really say:  "I lost weight" since I only have to step on the scale tomorrow to find that it's back again.

So, that's my week.  How was yours?  I hope you managed to meet your goal(s), whatever they might have been and look forward to hearing about it.  

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~

[AnnieBrooke]

Yeesh, Barb, that is a handful of challenges, annoying to be in pain and irritating to need surgery, and time consuming! It's nice to hear that you got the pens all done despite the carpal tunnel. Good luck with the ganglion, they are interesting but who wants to be the person who has one?

My weight is coming down slowly, slowly. This week I lost a half pound. I'm just chipping at it a bit at a time. Even the top of my desired 5-lb. range is still 2 1/2 pounds below where I am now, annoying because I dropped all the way through it and even reached a pound lower than the range last summer when I was so busy and active working on my mom's house that I only had time for one meal a day. Even then, though the weight loss stayed for several weeks, I didn't trust that it would be sustainable once I had less activity and more meals per day, but that doesn't mean I wanted it back! So, I'm eating lightly. Just trying to create an eating habit for the rest of my life. Too bad it's going to be the Christmas eats-and-treats season soon.

But there might be ways to make even Christmas treats less full of empty calories. I was requested to make some Christmas cookies for a party today, and was able to substitute "almond flour" (finely ground almonds) for 1/4th of the (wheat) flour in the recipe. That was a neat trick because it removes the carbs of the replaced flour while increasing the nutritional value of the cookies. The texture was more interesting also. I've also bought some filbert flour -- when I was a kid I lived in Scotland for a while, and all the bakeries sold a great filbert cookie, chewy with body (like a Rice Krispy treat), and moist. I loved them but have never seen them in the U.S. So I'm going to look online to see if I can track them down and find a recipe. I would guess the main ingredients are filbert and egg, and if so they will be higher in protein and lower in carbs than a lot of cookies.

Husband flew to San Francisco for a banquet last week, and sat next to a guy who coughed and hacked through it. Now guess who has the coughs and hacks. But it's not Covid, he tested. Even colds can be pretty annoying when you've avoided them for a while by masking. Other than that and watching our weight (husband lost 8 lbs. so he could wear a new suit to the banquet) we're doing OK health-wise.

Hope everyone has a great week!

[Barb135]

Yeah, it seems that I have some challenges coming up.  I didn't know, when I was making the pens that I was dealing with carpal tunnel... I just knew it hurt and kept pushing through the pain.  When the cramps got too bad, I simply had to stop.  

I know almost nothing about ganglions - except that they aren't cancer.  If you know something helpful, I'd love to hear it because I'm not learning anything from my doctor.  After all the phone calls and messages I left last week.  I called again yesterday and actually got to talk to a person.  I explained the entire situation and she said she'd send a message to the nurses station and get them to check it out and get back to me.  Because of last week's experience, I was pretty skeptical of a return call and even asked if they would call me back the same day.   She assured me they would and approximately 40 minutes later, a nurse called and said she'd had a chance to talk to the doctor and they're referring me out to a foot surgeon.   That was yesterday, and I didn't hear anything back again today, so I'll probably call tomorrow to check on that.  I hate to be a pest, but I've learned the hard way that if they don't get back to you in a short time, there's a good chance they won't at all.  

Chipping your weight off a little bit at a time is the best way to do because it's more likely you'll keep it off.  A half pound at a time isn't bad at all.   Since you dropped through your 5 lb range during the summer when you were really busy, that kind of indicates that the activity played a role, but the fact that you only ate one meal/day was also involved.  I'm guessing one meal/day wouldn't provide the nutrients you need, so it sounds like you're going at it better now, with trying to create an eating habit you can sustain over the long haul.  

The holidays tend to do a lot of us in... :-)  

You're right about finding ways to reduce calories.  I use almond flour (as well as other gluten free flours) for some things.  A cup of almond flour does contain carbs, but it's not a lot.  The thing that worked best for me was adding healthy fats, like olive and coconut oil.  Yeah, coconut oil has saturated fat, but it's not the demon a lot of people think it is and it works good for a lot of baking because it solidifies.   I make my traditional chocolate chip cookies with coconut oil instead of the old Crisco!!   When I make banana bread, I use applesauce instead of the oil.  

My husband doesn't like anything deemed "health food" (not because it tastes bad - because of his old fashioned ideas).  If I make something with healthier ingredients, he usually doesn't know the difference unless I tell him or he sees me put them in.   :-)

Typically, fats and sugar add the flavor.  If fat is removed, a sweetener (sugar) is usually added to replace the flavor. And of course, it works the other way -- if you remove sugar, fat usually replaces it in order to get a similar flavor.  Sugar isn't good for us, but some fats are.

The filbert cookies sound awesome.  Nuts (filberts) have a lot of fat, which adds to the flavor the flour.  If you replace whatever sugar is called for in the recipe with stevia, you might come up with some high calorie, healthy (but satisfying) cookies!!  I might actually try something like that.  thanks  :-)

Sorry to hear your husband came home with hacks and coughs.  It's unfortunate that so many people are against masking on planes or other public transportation... it could prevent so much illness.

Yay for husband for losing 8 pounds.  I want his secret, please.  lol  
Enjoy your week.