Day 30 (Tuesday)

 176.4 -- a new number!!  Whoo-HOO!

Supper last night... I had a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and mayo.  One piece of cake.  Followed by a walk to the field with the dogs.  We were both SO tired yesterday, but at least I had the motivation to suggest it and John came along.  And then we went to the grocery store and picked up a few things.  I bet that little bit of exercise helped my metabolism after eating.

And then I'm pretty sure I had about nine hours of sleep last night with just a bit of interruption from Kepler to be petted sometime early this morning before the alarm.

The alarm was to get up and walk with Seneca and her mom.  Last night Khione slipped her collar to charge a dog walking on our street, so I switched her to the ThunderLeash so she can't slip out.  Then I had to add two links to the pinch collar to get it around Kepler's giant neck.  So now the boys are on the shared leash (hook at each end).  I hope this will work -- it did today.

Anyway, it was a nice walk -- hour and a half out in the woods.  I closed the exercise ring even without telling my watch I was "exercising" -- I barely have 33 minutes out of that time.  Whatever.  I was up and out and broke a sweat.

Breakfast was two slices of toast with butter, made at work.  I finished fruit punch I bought yesterday and didn't finish, plus a vitamin water from a couple of days ago (same).  Now I'm working on seltzer.

Lunch was a frozen dinner preceded by a small handful of almonds while it cooked.  I have to eat while I cook.  I guess once I decide I want food, I want it NOW, and the act of preparing food is not enough.

4:30 PM is tai chi.  I might have to go to work tonight to be there while we transition some phone equipment from old to new. And then tomorrow is Wednesday -- riding for either Gillis or me, chemo for Khione with Duncan driving, a pedicure at 4:30, and spiritual discussion group at church at 7 PM.

Maybe supper will be salad with tempeh and mozzarella cheese... Chicken for me, if they have it at Shaw's. 

Day 29 (Monday #5)

 177.0!  Thank you!

Celebrated with a bowl of cereal with strawberries and a sprinkle of sugar.  A handful of peanut M&Ms.  Walked to work. Then a 200 calorie apple pie bar.

Lunch is a frozen dinner -- 350 calories, 17g protein.

It's Monday so the house will be put to rights and cleaned.  The cleaning ladies are planning to retire from most of their clients in January.  They are not spring chickens, for sure.  But they do a once-over to the whole house with beds and baths and motivate us to put stuff away and tidy up.

Day 28 (Sunday)

 178.8. Boo.  SO annoying.  Closed all my rings yesterday.  Felt like I had enough 💩 yesterday to be down five pounds.  Instead, UP.

ANYWAY.  Church.  So no breakfast.  Spindrift soda and caffeine to start the day.

Lunch was split pea soup with maybe pork in it -- great stuff.  I don't remember what else.  But the CHOCOLATE CAKE was phenomenal.  

Drove through Dunkin's on the way home and got John a couple egg and cheese wake-up wraps and a mango pineapple refresher -- had some sips of the drink.

Supper was tofu with veggies and udon noodles plus sweet chili sauce on mine.  A handful of peanut M&Ms somewhere.

Otherwise, I closed my activity ring.  Went to the hardware store a couple times. Sat around a bit.  Took movies of the dogs.  Went to the grocery store for a couple bags of groceries.  Fed the boys. Fed the dogs. Etc. Etc.

We finally, FINALLY figured out the correct login credentials for D to sign up for "Weeks of Welcome." We also learned we have to be there at 9 AM next Sunday morning.  

I desperately want to hug my boy.  But he is entirely hands-OFF.  So I pretended to and he smirked and ran away.  And then there was a tape measure on the counter and I told him I was going to hug him from six feet away by touching him with the tape measure... And then he picked up the dog squirt bottle and squirted me and we laughed at each other.

Day 27 (Saturday)

 178.4

Plus a LOT of 💩💩

Which is kind of amazing considering that for John's birthday supper last night, I made egg noodles (well, the no yolks version) with onions, red peppers, and impossible beef (which is the RIGHT answer to vegetarian grounds -- browns like beef and tastes good) stir-fryed and added to a mushroom red sauce (one reasonable serving).  Warmed up Italian bread (two slices).  And then Wacky Cake with almond flavored frosting for John's birthday (one piece).  

We said good-bye to agility and the instructor said she'd miss us.  She was happy about the chocolate.  People whose dogs were Khione's "prey" were not present.  New dogs were there and I controlled her and there were no NEW incidents.  It was a good course and we did okay with it.  Because of chemo, she had no appetite so I just praised her up at the spots where I would have given her cookies.

Did not stop at Dairy Queen one last time!  Can I lose a pound for that?  🤣

D created this piece in 3 1/2 hours.  I ordered a frame and it was D's birthday present to John.

This morning I had a Picky Bar and then we dashed up to check out the eyeglasses at the local Optician.  Maybe these?

There was a little girl and her mom in the shop at the same time and I had a laugh when the little girl said that if she needed glasses she'd just walk in and grab anything.  The mom was being amused because every pair she tried on, her daughter said, yeah, those are fine.  Unlike me -- I have to have D's approval before I'll get them.

For lunch I used some of my leftover Indian -- chicken and onions, added a couple of eggs and some guacamole on a tortilla.  It was really a bit much, but when it's not sugar I kind of feel like it's okay.

There was a free orange soda in the fridge, though, and THAT was certainly not 'okay' but I sure enjoyed the heck out of it!  And a half piece of cake later.

Been to the dump.  Unboxed a color laser printer. Washed a rug.  And mostly slept in until 9 AM, with a short interruption to buy off Kepler with a rawhide roll.

Vespers later.

And then I took my audiobook upstairs, took apart one bed and started assembling another.  John eventually came to help and then we bumped into a problem and need to investigate some solutions at the hardware store.

Supper was fake chicken sandwiches on buns with lettuce, tomato, guacamole and mayo.  Another 1/4 piece of cake at some point.

Day 26 (Friday)

 178.8

Dinner was pretty good.  I had an appetizer called Aloo Tikki Chaat which was quite lovely -- potato pancakes, with drizzles, tomatoes, cucumber and chick peas.  Then I tried Tandoori Mixed Grill so I could try ALL the meats.  The lamb was pretty good but the other things were merely "okay" leaning towards dry, although they give you plenty of sauce to put over it.  "Dry" is my general experience with Indian so I'm trying figure it out.  I did not eat the rice, just had meat with sauce spooned over it.  And the sauce was fine.  So now that's a thing I know.

Even eating just half of it, I was stuffed.  No dessert.

Today, my mood is sad.  I had a bowl of cereal with strawberries, an almond biscuit bar AND a picky bar.  Around 1:30 PM I had a frozen dinner which was yummy -- pesto pasta dish with chicken -- lots of protein, 360 calories.  I went down to the local candy store to get some nonpareils as gifts and bought myself a piece of dark chocolate butter crunch.

That's me being sad.  It's raining again.  I bet a lot of people are suffering from S.A.D.D.  I walked to work so D could use my car.  Walked to the candy store.  Will walk home.  Then I will go to agility for the last time.  Person #1 to receive nonpareils is the instructor.

Person #2 is John who turns 58 today and is feeling sad about that.  I have a shirt for him as well, which is quite cheery...

See? Cheery! I bought him another shirt from this company and he gets compliments all the time.

Day 24/25p

 Yesterday was 178.4 and today is 178.0.

I know WHY but it is SO frustrating.   Down a whopping five whole pounds.  How am I supposed to get to 60?!

Today, knowing I'm going out to dinner, I had a solid breakfast of bran flakes with strawberries and a sprinkling of sugar.  I followed it up with a 190 calorie almond butter biscuit.  I'm sipping on a cranberry kombucha.

Yesterday was easier to not eat because I wasn't at work.  I had shakeology for breakfast.  Later I ate a plain McDonald's biscuit.   I don't remember lunch -- maybe a Picky Bar.  I nursed a kombucha from afternoon until evening. At CVS I was hungry so bought a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup but then did not eat it all!  It just wasn't worth it. I'll call THAT a win! Then an impossible burger with lettuce tomato and guacamole on a role with vegan mayo for supper.  Later I had a slice of pound cake.  So it's not like I was all that virtuous, but I still managed to be less this morning.

'Course I also felt ill yesterday.  On Tuesday I had a Keto granola bar at work -- someone purchased them for office snacks.  They have some odd fake sweetener in them and I think it seriously disagreed with me.  It was just a low-grade systemic sick feeling with some 💩 element.  Nothing serious.  I'm better today.

Lunch today will be a bag of Peruvian Lentils, 360 cals for the whole bag.  Then we're having Indian food for supper with a group from church to celebrate a friend's birthday.

...

That 💩 was enough to drop me down for sure!  Aren't you glad I shared?  🤣

Day 23 (Tuesday)

 177.6.   Understandable.

Walked the dogs with our yellow lab friend this morning.  Boreas TOOK OFF in the woods and in lieu of having a clue of where we were, he started home.  Two people met up with him at the train station and escorted him home, just by following his lead.  Not that he didn't have a tag.  They just figured he was old enough to know how to get home.  And he did!

Crikey.  That got my heart rate going!  And what a stupid day to leave my phone behind!

I had a kind bar.  Then I had a picky bar.  One can of seltzer down and about to get another.

Lunch (frozen dinner) eaten -- chicken teriyaki was pretty yummy.  And a piece of scali bread toast with butter while I was waiting.

Tuesdays = tai chi

Day 22 -- Monday #4

 Not a lot to show for three solid weeks, but I certainly can see why.  Regardless, this morning was 177.4!

So far, I've had some diluted limeade, a piece of toast with spread, a banana, and a Picky Bar.  And a Clearly Canadian (90 cals).  I have a frozen dinner for lunch (360 cals).  Being Monday, it's been a busy morning trying to pull the house together enough for the cleaning ladies to clean so it's 11:42 and I'm not desperate for lunch -- all that food is enough for now.

If I want to see some progress, I guess I need to STAY FOCUSED and aim for 175 this week.

Yesterday my MIL climbed upstairs to view the tornado that the guest/G side of the house had become. And the rug stains -- crikey! I found this product at the grocery store that claimed to be "instant" and it actually works!  So we used the entire container and the carpet is so much better.

Before that, on Saturday. we laid out all of the things we had collected for D to go to college.  Good thing, too, as I discovered the sheets that came with the "Dorm in a Bag" set were polyester!  Yucky!  Why would anyone think that was a good thing?  So I used some LLBean $$ and bought two cotton sheets.  We have plenty of pillow cases.  One crisis averted.

While grocery shopping we picked up some things for D, including the yogurt drink he likes (good til the end of September) and goldfish crackers.   Maybe if he gets a pizza a week he'll be getting sufficient nutrition to function in addition to the cafeteria food -- which is fabulous, but being so self-limiting, he'll have trouble finding enough calories.  This is one of my big worries.  I have no shortage.

Anyway, with the double bed from my parents' house in pieces, and G's 3D printer on the floor in the hallway and all the laundry from the guest beds being used, and THEN... OMG, when G texted and asked me about Lego I could've jumped from a moving vehicle.  He'd been playing Lego Rock Raiders online and suddenly had it in mind to reassemble some Rock Raider kits.  Fortunately, Mary was there to help him remember where boxes of Lego were.  He thought we might've sold it.  HA!  I assured him that we had EVERY Lego EVER in our houses.  In exchange for him actually cleaning up after himself and closing up boxes and closet doors, I schlepped a bunch of his stuff to his basement lab.  Lego.  Good golly.

WHILE trying to get D ready for leaving the house and going to college.  AND babysitting an additional four dogs, two of them until September 2nd, a third until who-knows-when because the owners went to be with their in-labor daughter, and a fourth going home today but he's in and out all the time.

Supper last night was a big salad with fake chicken cutlet, French dressing and wonton strips.  And a quarter of a doughnut.  

Heroics performed last night included helping D compose an email relative to a password problem he's having with the link for orientation.  He'd spent all day and was very frustrated -- I feel your pain, buddy -- on the phone with people trying to fix it.  No joy.  I pasted a bunch of screenshots and spelled it out clearly in hopes that it helped, despite the fact that he claimed everything I said repeated what he had already said.  I don't doubt it.

Meanwhile, upstairs, I finally comprehended the problem with G's ability to register for classes.  I worry about myself, really and truly.  But I also cut myself a bit of slack because these are all new systems/programs/databases/websites that I'm trying to understand.  Someone responded to an email I had G send and explained about the prerequisites for the two classes I wanted him to take.  The pieces of the puzzle finally came together.

End result, I signed G up for Algebra 1 as a refresher.  Then we'll work through the various maths until he has sufficient understanding to get a decent score on the placement test.  Better that he really get the math for himself and not require handholding to pass.  I also signed him up for Speech which satisfies an elective and which ought to be super easy for him.  I think two classes while working is enough.

Then I figured out the trains and printed a schedule.  That all starts September 18.

After that, I was done.  No, I was not especially interested in disassembling and reassembling 3-4 beds.  I ended up doing absolutely nothing after 8 PM.

Day 21

 178.4.  At least it's down!

Church, so no breakfatst.  Drinking a probiotic soda (40 cals) with my vitamins, etc.

Day 20

 178.8.  

Started the day with three eggs and two slices of munster cheese on an English muffin.  And a Picky Bar.  I would have been content with a few nonpareils, but they were upstairs and I was not.  [sigh]

Walked to the post office with Kepler and back.  So I'm at 2,542 steps.  It's almost "lunch time" but I don't need lunch.  Feel like I'm just getting started with the day.   Drinking some diluted juice.

Big jobs to do:

1. dump run -- probably at least two.
2. wash world's largest dachshund
3. unpack all of D's college stuff and evaluate what else we need 
4. a giant list that has been made for me which includes some of the above

Gotta get started.

One pop tart. Some Kombucha.

Day 19

 And as result of having pasta/cream-based supper followed by ice cream, today I woke up to 178.6.  No surprise.

Breakfast:  Italian bread toast with spread and a Picky Bar as I walked to work in the rain.

D helped me unload the double bed from my parents from my car and lug it upstairs to the guest room. Now to play musical beds and decide where to put it.

Frozen dinner for lunch.  I wonder if there are any leftovers from yesterday's grill-fest.  Yes!  So I had a chunk of chicken while I waited for the teriyaki chicken to heat up.

Someone in the office bought Keto power bars -- ate one of those.

Then went to agility (second-to-last time), and shopping with Duncan at The Container Store and Staples.

Once home, I had a fake chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato and mayo and part of a package of Lorna Drones, shared with the dogs.

Oh, and a dish of sorbetto (dairy free).

Day 17 & 18...

 This morning was 177.6 or 177.4?  Whatever, there was a 177 in it!  And that was after a day out:

Breakfast yesterday was cereal with blueberries and an English muffin with spread.

Then went riding.  After that, I headed North to Grantham.

Stopped at my favorite rest stop and bought a probiotic soda (40 cals) and a bag of potato chips (300 cals).

Visited with my parents and had THE most amazing desert, lemon pudding cake made in ramekins with blueberries on top.  SO good.  Died-and-gone-to-heaven good.  My parents seemed to be doing "fine" for the shape they're in.  Dad is even driving himself to his medical appointments -- a 17-minute drive each way.  Mom is doing some PT which is awesome.  And they're getting house cleaning help through either the VA or the VNA.

Split a black cherry soda with my mother.

Then, headed South and had supper at Panera with my aunt and uncle -- Happy Birthday, Aunt Marge!  I ate an ENTIRE bacon turkey bravo sandwich because YUMMM.  And lemonade.  

And that was IT.  I stopped!  Yay!

This morning was a Kind bar (190 cals).  Started on my vitamins, etc. early with fizzy water.

Then, to celebrate my boss's birthday, there were cinnamon rolls.   Lunch is going to be grilled meat.  I will joyously participate in THAT!  I have a Picky Bar with me, but I've just tossed it in a drawer.  Let's try to NOT eat that.

Pedicure later with my friend and her mom.  Which is good because I have some sort of a sore on the bottom of my foot from my dog walk this morning wearing boots and bad-for-boots socks.  I've done 7,974 steps today!

So, lunch was a sausage, some marinated chicken and marinated beef.  A little of each, plus a slice of bread with butter.  SO good.

Planning on a vegetarian version of Beef Stroganoff for supper.

So the stroganoff was yummy although John wasn't a fan of the particular fake grounds.  I think he likes the Impossible Beef but not the Beyond Beef.  Otherwise, it was loaded with mushrooms and the sauce was fabulous.

And I should've stopped there, but I had a dish of ice cream.  IT WAS THERE!  

Day 16

 178.  Rewarded for not eating ice cream.  YAY!

This morning I woke up knowing I needed to find something for G -- and then a miracle happened and I did!  Phew.  Part of show-n-tell in a presentation he'll do for his last class of Comp 101 tomorrow night.  One class nearly done!  

Food so far:  One Keebler cookie, one Picky Bar, one banana.  If I had something else, I would eat that too.  I have the second half of my salad from last night for lunch.  Just need to convince myself to wait a little bit.

Woke up to rain and could not face three wet dogs, so did not go walk with Seneca and her mom.

My BIL and his three kids leave later today!  He headed out with his youngest to see a dinosaur movie just as two new dogs arrived for the day.  They are Australian Cattle Dogs, one with a tail and one without, both girls.  Kepler thought they were VERY cute.  They were less impressed with him.

And good news!  The lump on Kepler's leg is something called a seroma.  No reason for it to have occurred as that linked article suggests it would follow surgery.  However, it should resolve on its own or I can put warm compresses on it a few times a day to help it along.  NOT scary or dangerous or deadly! Yay!  One of my breeders thought warm compresses would help.  Now to figure out what a warm compress actually is!

I ate my half salad lunch (yummy!) and when I was finally hungry (3:15 PM), not just bored-hungry, I had an almond butter biscuit thing (190 cals).  SO yummy.  Totally worth it.

Found an online book called Finding Cinderella.  I loved it.  YA fiction is about the most stress I can handle.

Day 15, Monday #3

 179.  BOOO.

But apple pie for dessert last night!  And the best non-pareils I've ever had.  So. Whatever.

Breakfast was a small bowl of half cereal/half blueberries because I didn't want the personally-picked blueberries from Maine (picked by my cousin) to go to waste.  Then I finished off the Nori snacks (something less than 40 cals).  And then my Picky Bar.

This is what eating is for me normally.  Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat.

I have a Lean Cuisine for lunch (300 cals).  And then I just need to focus on drinking water.

Add a handful of almonds that I ate while waiting for lunch to cook in the microwave.

On other hand... a lot of 💩.  

Tonight I will keep an eye on an elder friend while her son and caregiver goes to his AA meeting.  And then I'll go visit another one.  Didn't mean for both of those to happen on the same night but forgot about my responsibility to do the first.

And then go pick up G from the train.

Supper was from Firing Up.  I got a mini steak tip salad and ate half! And one cookie.  And did NOT eat ice cream.  So that was expensive -- Firing Up for everybody and then Dairy Train for everybody.  I bought frozen yogurt and put it in the freezer to eat another day.

Elder friend had a lot of arm pain -- went to swat a fly and deeply regretted it.  But we chatted (repetitively) until her son returned.  You don't have to come up with many stories if you get to tell the same ones over again. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy were on in the background but muted.  I am THE WORST at trying to carry on a conversation in the presence of a TV.  And the friend can't see much so a muted TV was no distraction to her.

The second friend had a glass of wine waiting for me -- I don't feel anything from a glass of wine, but it was lovely to sit and chat.  HER muted TV was on the Hallmark channel, I think.  I kept wondering about Lori Loughlin's hair -- like, why does she need to brush it, it's already perfect... 

And then I collected D to drive me to pick up G at the train station.  He executed that task much better than he had previously with STOPS at all the right places.  Nothing like hitting that 4-way intersection in Wenham at driving speed.  Yikes.  

Day 14

 178.4  UP.  Ugh.  And that's AFTER a good 💩.  Ah well.  Moving on.

Church, so no breakfast.  Fizzy water, vitamins and caffeine.

Day 13

 Saturday.  Woke up to 178.2  -- UP.  Boo. Hiss.

Skipped breakfast and went to church.  Drank fizzy water on the way.

At church there was cake.  I had *A* piece.

Then we went to Thai and I had salmon with veggies and fresh ginger in some sort of sauce with white rice.

I finished that bag of quinoa chocolate crisps.  Yummy but worth it?  Hmmm.

Supper was three eggs with cheese on two flour tortillas.  At 9:30 PM.

Day 12...

 Aaaannnnd... It's Friday!  And I woke up to 177.0!!  That's down six pounds. Whoot!

Started the day with a dog walk and then brought Seneca home with us for the weekend.  Always have to shower after walking the dogs in the woods as it is a sweaty, steamy and muddy experience.

So far, a Picky Bar, some water, and some diluted pomegranate blueberry juice.

Today is the one of the last times I will go to agility.  Khione is really being a problem with other dogs and is somewhat persona non grata because of it.  That takes a lot of the fun out of going.  It's not like I'm ever going to show her in agility because (1) she potentially won't live long enough; (2) her dog aggression would make going to shows a problem; and (3) I just can't remember a course -- 17-20 obstacles in order.  Yes, they're numbered, but that's not what you're focusing on when you have 45 seconds to get through them all.    And (4) Kepler is not the type of dog that should be jumping and landing all his weight.  

There are three more sessions that I've paid for and I'll finish them out.  It used to be my THING.  I loved going so much and would get SO angry when something prevented me from going.  Now, it's actually something of a relief when class is cancelled.  Not that I want to spend MORE time in my house with my MIL coming up with stuff I should be doing.

I still want to train the behaviors, though, and I have a decent amount of equipment -- not the big stuff, but jumps, weave poles and a tunnel. And this morning I woke up with a great idea of how to store it -- we have an outside storage chest, currently filled with beach stuff.  I can get rid of the beach stuff and put the agility stuff in there instead.  

Lunch was a frozen dinner and an almond butter biscuit.  Later a handful of almonds.

Supper was tofu and veggies with udon noodles in Japanese BBQ sauce.

Probably some sort of snack I no longer remember.  But NOT ice cream!  I bought some quinoa crunchy chocolate snack bite things and ate a REASONABLE amount of them.

Day 10 & 11...

 Woke up on Wednesday to 179.0 and this morning to 178.0.  I'll take it... Now if I can get below THIS, then I'll feel like I've made some actual progress as I've been stuck at these numbers for a long time 178-180+).

Went kayaking with the family and B yesterday.  THAT was awesome again!

On the snack list, I've finished off the puff pastry cinnamon twist things I bought -- but in pieces, rather than multiples.  Picky Bars for breakfast yesterday and today.  One, O-N-E cider donut from Russell Orchards. As in one-and-done.  Impossible!

Supper last night was a "chicken" patty on a roll with lettuce and tomato... I've been drinking a couple of Kombucha drinks a week... Somehow, drinking something THAT "interesting" makes me feel better and maybe it's actually helping my gut health.  

I'm feeling a tiny bit sick -- scratchy throat -- so after my morning errands, I bought a medium pineapple coolatta at Dunkin'.  There's diluted pomegranate blueberry juice in my Yeti thermos.  And I've brought a frozen dinner for lunch.  

I took Kepler to the vet this morning for his mysterious lump.

After a confusing scheduling moment, I was able to see one of my favorite vets anyway, despite the fact that my appointment was actually for SEPTEMBER 7 -- no way would I have wanted that!  The vet pulled a huge syringe full of liquid out of that and sent samples off to the lab.  Oh, and he weighs 96 pounds at 9 1/2 months!

Other than learning his weight, the good part was how good he was.  He was not bothered in the slightest about being AT the vet.  He's certainly a fan of their liver treats. He was a little too excited to visit other dogs, but he was generally happy and not out of control.  He still does not like the car and drools copiously.  On one trip recently we got somewhere and he was dry so I was hoping it was getting better, but not yet.

Yesterday was a great family outing -- six of us went kayaking with our experienced friend to make sure we all came back alive.  Everyone was successful.  One of the best parts of the day was that I ran into Marshall's and came out with shorts for John in five minutes and he LOVED them.  That's the sort of purchase that would normally take hours of research.

Of course he sunburned his knees.  [sigh]

For supper I made a chicken quesadilla with coleslaw I had cooked in some Japanese BBQ sauce the night before with cheese.  Not especially flavorful, but hey, quesadilla, so automatically yummy.  Everyone else had House of Pizza that wanted it, but not me!  

I did have one mini ice cream sandwich.  The idea of "dinner and done" is not one I can accept.  I do like the idea of contained snacks, though -- granola bars, power bars, Lorna Doones, etc.  Self-limiting.  Because having access to a BAG of something is impossible to manage.

Day 9

 Started the day at 180.2.  

Then:

Dog walk in the woods in the rain for 4.5K or so.

Hairdresser called looking for me so I dashed there.  Ate my Picky Bar while my color set.

Really good 💩.  LOL.

And a handful of almonds at 11:35 AM.  Not having had time to grab lunch, maybe I'll have oatmeal.

Day 8 - Monday #2

 And then I ate some stuff, blah, blah, blah... Including taco dinner -- veggie grounds in the "meat" plus lettuce, tomato, cheese and guacamole on flour tortillas.  Three of them.  YUM.  Worth every bite.  There are SO many snacks around at the moment, but I ate one of this and a couple bites of that and did NOT dive into the ice cream.

Now it's Monday again!  180.6.  Cleaning lady day.  And going to work day.  And fall into bed on clean sheets day.  AFTER collecting G from the Hamilton/Wenham train stop so he doesn't have to come home at 12:15 AM.

Kepler has a weird lump on his leg which we're getting checked out on Thursday.  Apparently his breeder has one, too, on her knee, after a fall.  She is hoping HERS will just magically go away.  Wonder if that's an option for Keppy, but we'll find out.  

This morning I had a piece of cinnamon flaky twisted pastry -- just a piece.  Then a Picky Bar at work.  And a bottle of Synergy kombucha (60 cal).  Ate my lunch around 12:30 PM -- leftover pulled-pork quesadilla which was pretty delicious the second time around.

The day ended with homemade pizza and peanut M&Ms as well as some ice water with lemon powder.  I'm actually starting to crave the ice water with lemon or lime.

Day 6 &7...

 Yesterday I woke up to 179.6.  More up.  And I knew it wouldn't stop there because we were headed to Old Orchard Beach... Yesterday I ate:

Egg, cheese and bacon on an English muffin on the train, with seltzer.  Second one after drinking one in the car on the way to the train.

THEN.

Two chicken tenders and some fries.

Half a pulled pork quesadilla, and ear of corn with butter and a hard seltzer (100 calories).  HALF the quesadilla!  Look at me being all moderate!  LOL.

And after a loooooong day of walking back and forth by the Fried Dough stand and seeing what choices there were, I ended the day with fried dough with strawberry shortcake on it.  SO many choices... Apple pie filling with whipped cream or caramel apple with whipped cream or blueberry pie filling... All of it so irresistible.

Finally, a lovely lemonade.  And when I got home, because you need a snack when you go to bed, a packet of Lorna Doones... 

Today? 181.6.  No shock.

Lunch -- I skipped the cake!  I had the lentil soup and some grapes.  AND STOPPED.  

My cousin came for the night yesterday and brought a ton of yummy things.  Fortunately, my BIL and his kids are here so perhaps someone else will help eat it all!

Day 5...

 So that substantial supper was too much, of course.  179.2 This morning.  But I didn't eat an ice cream sundae when Mary bought one yesterday, so at least the sugar resistance is working to some degree.

Breakfast was a half a toasted peanut butter and jam sandwich, very light on the peanut butter.  And I'm snacking now on an entire serving of rice crisps, 110 calories.  Plus a Clearly Canadian blackberry water, 90 calories.  Lunch will be a bag of seasoned shredded vegetables (200 calories) and there's a Picky Bar in my backpack -- no doubt I'll eat it! -- 200 calories.  So that's my work day!

I will NOT be stopping at Dairy Queen later!

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11:44 AM. We now have all new smoke/heat/carbon dioxide detectors throughout the house with 10-year battery backup... How awesome is THAT?!  No more random smoke detectors laying around hoping to be reinstalled. 

At the moment I'm stalling and trying to wait until noon to eat my lunch.  

Tomorrow we're taking Amtrak to Old Orchard Beach for the day.  After some research, apparently you can sit on the beach or you can eat.  Or maybe commit to walking a very long way on the sand!

3:32 PM Getting twitchy.  Want food.  Could easily snack on something.  Maybe I should or else I *will* stop at Dairy Queen later.  [sigh] Finished a seltzer can.  

OK.  3:48 PM.  I'm having Nature Valley Biscuits with Almond Butter (190 calories).  I will focus on enjoying it.  And another can of seltzer.  And some vitamins.

Day 4...

 And on the fourth day, the electrician came to replace ALL the smoke detectors.  The best part?  I can throw away all the broken ones that are laying around here, there and everywhere!  Oh, and we can live in safety!

Starting this entry at 7:20 AM because A) the electrician is coming so I'm up to tidy up a bit and 2) today's number is 178.6 which is a LOVELY thing.  I have to go to work today, so it'll be another day of talking myself out of eating.  

Also, do not take No-Doz at 7 PM and then expect to go to sleep.  That wasn't the brightest move -- maybe  a Celsius drink would've been a better plan... a little rather than a lot.  Ah well, it was good to get the things done that I needed to, last night... Also to be able to drive safely.

Started the day with Shakeology -- cocoa powder and banana.  Finished it around 11:30 AM.

Started a Celsius drink (10 calories).  FYI -- these have 200 mg of caffeine, so NO, do not drink these at 7 PM either!  And ALSO, do not use them to TAKE a caffeine pill.  Crikey.  I could be on the ceiling.

Lunch will be a Lean Cuisine (300 calories).  If I can get too snacky (NOT snarky, thank you, autocorrect!), there are snack bars here.  But I'm holding off on lunch for now.

Nearly 1 PM and I'm making lunch.  Typing this to avoid the while-cooking snack attack. So 300 calories soon to be coming my way.  Almost done the Celsius drink.  Then to think about supper.  Being Thursday it can include meat and cheese.

Finished lunch and I still want food.  Ugh.  If I can just wait for the food to arrive at my stomach... 

1:43 PM  Broke down and had a Picky Bar (200 cals).  It's okay. 

2:26 PM  Starting a fizzy water.

So I went home... Ate one package of Lorna Doones (140 calories).  For my supper, I had three eggs, with some veggie sausage, 1/4 avocado, and maybe some cheese between two wraps.  A very substantial supper. Managed to NOT need anything else and I've been thirstily drinking lemon water since then.

After last night with no sleep, I'm headed for bed.  It won't take much doom scrolling for me to be asleep!  Oh, and I closed all my rings, including the exercise ring by walking to and from work plus whatever else I did today.

Day 3

So, can't seem to use a phone app to write these.  Oh, well.

This morning was a disappointing weigh-in... 180.4.  UP.  But I remember from yesterday that I ate a banana and had 10 Pringles -- so there's 200 calories I didn't need... Is that really enough to go UP?  Also, no 💩 yesterday.  So, there's that.  Whatever! 

Because I wasn't at work today, there wasn't that CONSTANT need to eat.  In fact, for this and that reason, I didn't eat ANYTHING until after noon, when I ate a 200 calorie Picky Bar.  And nothing after that!

At supper, I noticed that I have to eat while preparing food because now I'm thinking about FOOD and I want it NOW -- instant gratification, right?!  Also, I went to the grocery store for a few ingredients for supper and I can't leave without SOMETHING.  So I bought a box of Lorna Doones.  The great thing is they come in packages inside the box.  One package = 140 calories.

So while I made supper, one package of Lorna Doones.  Then, supper was a very virtuous pita bread (90 calories) with hummus and lettuce.  And I stopped at one of those knowing that I was going to eat a piece of cake later at church.  Which I did.  ONE piece.  Totally worth it.

A tiny bit of 💩 today.  And not nearly enough water.  

In other news, Khione had chemo today and her bloodwork allowed it.  The discharge report said she was still in complete remission.  She has two weeks off before her next treatment!

Obligatory photo, just because:

I went to work briefly to get a report for my colleague in Australia, so took a quiet minute to write this there.  Now I need to go home and do a quick thing for the BMD club which I said I'd do this afternoon, but I didn't have the headspace to do it then.  I took a caffeine pill at 7 PM so I have the headspace NOW... No worries, it'll wear off!  I needed to be awake at 7 so I could listen to a talk attentively, AND drive through the darkened streets of Lynn to pick up G and then home again.  I do NOT like city streets in the dark.  

OH, one of the best parts of today was that someone who I know is far away and actually institutionalized at the moment and so I totally understand WHY I don't hear from them, when I sent a spontaneous, throwaway text, suddenly responded and we had a whole conversation.  That made my entire month, that did.  

Day 2, Dog Walk & Tai Chi day

So, THAT was rewarding at least.  Lately, I could do a giant walk and the next day I would weigh more. But THIS works.  This morning, after walking the dogs with their yellow lab friend, I weighed 179.6.  That's down 3.4 pounds IN A DAY!  Of course that's not sustainable and there was definitely that BM urgency.  But at least I could get a pat on the back for a day spent resisting eating too much.

This morning so far... A large piece of multi-seed toast and a banana.  It felt like too much.  I have a Picky Bar and a Lean Cuisine to eat while I'm at work.  Those are 500 calories together.  So I need to make a plan for supper.

It was a good walk this morning -- 4.5K or so and I closed my exercise ring without telling my watch I was actually exercising, which seems to make it record more exercise.  The dogs were only moderately muddy rather than ridiculously muddy when we got home.  And I had enough oomph left over to wash the visiting Bernerdoodle, who has been throughly slobbered on during her time with us.  Kepler just loves to chew on her ears.  Being a relatively small dog, that whole job took about 10 minutes.  Then it was time for a shower, during which I listen to a Story Corp episode about two guys who were twins and morticians.

I'm on my second sparkling water can so far today.

Tomorrow?  Drop Khione off in Woburn for chemo.  Drive to Waltham to try acupuncture for Duncan. Back to Woburn to pick up Khione.  And then maybe visit a seamstress to have a jean jacket Duncan bought amended in some way... He has ideas.  Without riding, that's practically a light day!  Just have to map out the driving piece so we are in Waltham by 9:30.

My officemate has already eaten lunch.  I'm okay so far.  THAT's interesting.

12:46 PM Managed to wait til now... My frozen dinner is in the microwave.  The thing I'm delaying now is not just eating that Picky Bar while I wait for the frozen dinner to cook.  Because I'm SO immediate feedback... That's not the word... Maybe I meant instant feedback?  Super ADHD, anyway.  Almost done.  3 minutes then stir then 1.5 minutes.  Now that I'm thinking about food, I'm SO -- found it! -- instant gratification!!!

2:27 PM Starting my third can of seltzer... Need to fill my pill box.

4:08 PM Pills sorted!  Almost time for Tai Chi.

8:33 PM Tofu, veggies and rice with sesame seeds and a lovely sauce for supper, preceded by 10 Pringles = 100 calories.  Now I'm trying not to eat any more.  I did some lemon flavor in a glass of ice water and that was lovely.

And now D and I are watching some Mob Psycho 100.   I will try to NOT eat anything.

Meanwhile, John is having vertigo.