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