Day Off

It’s a gloomy day here and for once, the weather and my plans were on the same page.

Stormy!

It was so dreary I laid on my sofa and actually napped. Oh what a treat that was!

When I got up, I got Kasia out for her walk, since those ten thousand steps are always on my mind. When we got back in, I decided to see what’s up with Club Gerber. You can imagine my surprise when I saw a newcomer to Club Gerber trying to crash the party. If you look at the picture above, you see a new blossom trying to open.

Of course, there’s always my mums, which make me smile and think of my Dad. He used to raise them in my back yard when I was a kid.

Here are the remaining Club Gerber inhabitants, waving goodbye until next summer. They enjoyed their time here, that much is quite evident.

Bye guys! See you next year!

Dreary Tuesday, but…

We had a 7am walk this morning, and, if I must speak for the both of us, it was a good one. It, however, was overcast, and is due to stay that way all day. Kasia, taking a cue from a pup acquaintance in Wisconsin, said,” Good day for a nap.”

I am intrigued by the fact that I am eating from a summer menu; that is, I am making a ton of salad and lighter fare. Again, work has come between us and the dietician again, but I am not worried. Common sense has helped me drop a few more pounds. It’s a good thing, too. I had a Ortho appointment yesterday for a ” mild” case of cellulitis. Evidently, with hardware in your knees, it doesn’t take much to attract bacteria to your system. A gnat bite, something as simple as that can get you. The first time I had it, down here, my doctor said it’d be an asset for the hardware to drop some weight. Well, evidently, catching it early, along with ” the stars in alignment, got me the mildest treatment. Two and a half weeks of antibiotics, hopefully, will take care of it. Two summers ago, I took levequin until, what seemed to me, when the cows came home.

So, summer is doing ok so far- I am hoping it stays that way!

Summer’s Back

We had company over the the weekend, so now, it’s a Kasia and Mom morning. We are getting back to our schedule, as Mom does the laundry and walks Kasia to keep her on her schedule.

We had a beautiful weekend with low humidity.The air has been delightful and the windows have been wide open and the air-conditioning has been off.

Not today…

We were up early so before the humidity crawled up too much, we had a good walk in. We came back so both of us can have our breakfast, and then I get to start my chores. I am just not looking forward to walking for about 5 minutes outside and then feeling like a wet washrag.

Stay cool and hydrated if you are in the same boat as Kasia and I are in. Most importantly , enjoy the company of your friends and family.

After all…it’s summer!

Beat

It was a full day for me today with second graders. It was wonderful and exhausting all rolled up into one.

Sure, it is t minus 8 days until the last day of school, yet the class I had was always up for a challenge. I twisted multiplication tables every which way and it was intriguing to watch the minds at work. I chuckled to myself when I heard two of them tell a classmate in the other second grade that “Mrs. C. makes the time tables fun.” Go figure.

I am due in tomorrow for a full day with special education students. It is good because I get to figure out the best ways to get the material to them in which they stand a good chance of understanding it.

Kasia can’t wait for the end of school, so Mom can go back to giving her undivided attention. I am looking forward to getting our walks in around bumps in daily humidity so we both can be comfortable. We had been walking a different route once in a while, and I get the chance to add a little more to every walk.

I can’t wait!

“Weight” a Minute!

In a minimal amount of time, here are some things that have made me grateful and happy during this leg of my behavior modification.

Even with fourteen pounds off, my feet hurt less. I basically wear the same shoes when I am in school and it’s absolutely amazing how the loss of weight has my feet saying thank you.
“Weight”! Are those my missing in action abdominal muscles? All of a sudden I have the ability to take steps without walking one step at a time. Now I can ambulate one foot after another! It has sadly been a while since I did that.
I always drank water. That was never really an issue for me. However, starting again from square one in behavior modification has stirred up the thirst in me. I like that. Ever look at low calorie lemonade, soda, juice, etc? Ever look at the label and read the ingredients? You go and read until you see the big 5 syllable words that translate into chemicals. Ugh. No thanks: I’ll pass.
My cheerleading squad is with me every step of the way. It helps that Jim is doing this with me, but he is truly in my corner, encouraging me by telling me how much better I look. My neighbor behind me comes down over the weekend and we go for a walk. Gregory, my neighbor, does research work for me and tells me about different twists on “Eat this, not that”.He also finds comprehensive quick lists of calories in things, such as lunchmeat. My 81 year old neighbor calls over to me to tell me she can see the loss of weight in my torso. Oh, and let’s not forget my Kasia, my number one walking partner.
My support group rocks!
No, I don’t waltz by myself in a women’s room stall, but all of a sudden I seem to have a little bit more room to take care of business in.You go from banging elbows on stall walls, to noticing I don’t have to hang on anything to get myself up. I missed that and am grateful to have that ability back.

So this is my quick list for now. Sometimes, I have to admit, I see the little changes and kick myself for letting myself go that far. Depression sucks, and I was deep in it. Crawling up and taking care of myself? I find it a much more pleasurable task.

Weight a Minute!

Between the exercise of walking Kasia further, school and counting carbs and calories, I am officially down 12 1/2 pounds.

Take the picture above. Where Jim and I go out for dinner on Thursday nights, they have introduced this roasted red beet salad which is delicious. Six months I wouldn’t have thought so. Incredible what accountability will do.

The dietician looked at me as though she didn’t think I would do as well as I did on the scale. Easy to do, when you are tired of lugging the extra inches on your body.Our appointment today gave us a few ideas on trying twists in the menu to keep us satisfied and keep up our good work.

So we are going to keep on keeping on. This appointment marked one month since the initial appointment with the dietician. I’m going to keep doing what has been working for me, and not kill myself, as I realize that an almost 60 year old body goes slowly in some areas. Fortunately, there is no race. My body is happy, and I intend to keep it that way!