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.