Week 15 - On the Upswing

It was another interesting week at work. Between the asbestos abatement going on as part of the remodel down the hall and the repercussions from last week’s drama, it was something new every day. And I didn’t go into the week in top form, having only gotten about 4 hours of sleep. But since I’d packed for power pump before bed on Sunday I still went when the stove timer woke me up at 5:15. And of course it was the week the instructor decided to change things up and use exercise balls, which are not my forte. While I didn’t take anyone out with a flying ball like the last time I used them, I did struggle at every turn and at one point was just lying on the floor laughing hysterically. That should have been a clue to how the week would go.

And to continue my ever graceful week, I was walking down the hallway Tuesday afternoon, tripped on the hose the asbestos guys had taped across the floor and despite a comical, I’m sure, pinwheeling of arms for what seemed like ages, fell on my ass in the middle of the hallway. The “almost saved myself but no quite” pinwheeling mean that I was only a foot above the floor when I fell so I knew I was OK. My only concern was my shoulder, which I’d jammed when I instinctively put my arm out to catch myself, but after an extra meloxicam at home, I was fine. Just a bit stiff on Wednesday.

Over the course of the week, things transpired at work so that by the end of the week Randy and Josh were moving out of our office and we were posting a job for a new data analyst. So while I hated crying in front of my boss last week, it seemed to be a wake up call of sorts and things are a changin’. While change is not easy, at least it feels like progress in the right direction so I’m calling it good. 

My diet was not going in a good direction. I went to Aldi hungry one night and spent $107, which is pretty amazing for Aldi. Unfortunately I bought some things I just couldn’t resist eating and it went downhill from there. It became a battle of trying to be good but failing and so eating WAY too much. After the totally not filling 290 calorie broth bowl at Panera on Friday, I was chowing down caramel corn and chocolate covered almonds. That was followed by more than a couple jam tarts at the French Week event Cindy and I went to instead of swimming on Friday. The movie was awful (Louise l’Insoumise – a wretched 80’s movie that was 2 hours of a mother abusing one of her daughters) so I ate more jam tarts afterwards then went home to snack my way through my kitchen. I vowed to be better on the weekend but by Saturday afternoon there was no point. I was eating more while failing to be good than if I just gave up and ate like a normal person. So that’s what I did. I’ll do another rotation when I’m back from DC. 

At least I was getting things done elsewhere. On the knitting front, I’ve been rocking the sandals and socks thing so was happy to finish a pair of socks that perfectly matched a new blouse I’d bought. I wore the new combo happily on Thursday. I also fixed the socks I’d made for Shannon that were too big and dropped them at her husband’s office on Friday. With those done, I cast on some monster socks, which always make me happy. I actually got a few other things off my to do list too – taxes finally filed and finished up a few projects from the previous week. Shannon and Cody came to dig perennials on Sunday so I spent the day outside, getting most of the raking done, filling in the holes they’d left with sifted compost and prepping 1 veg bed for early planting. Now for some rain to soften up the soil.

So after a shaky start, life was looking up by the end of the week and I was heading into a short work week with my DC trip at the end. Add the gorgeous spring blooms everywhere on campus and just starting at home plus finally getting outside to start some gardening and I was a happy camper. I hope you’re enjoying your spring too.

Week 14 - A Bumpy Week

This week was all about the weekend. The work week was dragging as I plugged away at the follow up on last week’s big to do list. It was progress but plodding so the days weren’t exactly flying by. I was looking forward to Friday, which was the first of the month so would be chock full with reporting and would end with a brownie sundae mini food day at 3:00 and the Chancellor’s final Perl of Wisdom and State of the University at 4:00. So Friday was going to be a good day. Or not…. 

Without going into gory detail, let’s just say I had a super frustrating morning and ended up in tears in my boss’ office after lunch. Now I hate crying, never mind in front of my boss, so retreated to the conference room to clean before our ice cream event and things got better from there. Everyone seemed to enjoy the ice cream (yes, I ate some so blew some calories – oh well) and then rather than streaming the chancellor’s event, I grabbed Cindy and we walked over to The Lied to see it in person. It was lots of fun and got over just after 5:00. I had planned to swim but was considering skipping when Layton asked for a ride to his car, which would put me right by the pool. So despite being 15 minutes late, I swam and it was a good decision. All exercised and showered, I was ready for my weekend at home. 

Let me just say here, that adding fat to my rotations was a complete success. After a week I’d lost 8 pounds, which was right in line with my usual starving all the time 600/900 weeks. But this time I was NEVER hungry and had enjoyed snacks of pistachios, salads with olive oil dressing and olives or avocados all the time. Nice. 

On another health note, I had been feeling light headed of late so went to the doctor, who ordered blood tests. Everything came back fine so I'm chalking it up to not enough calories or sleep. The kicker is that when I asked them to run a lipid panel, all my cholesterol numbers were worse! Seriously? The last time I had my blood work done (June), my numbers were great, which made sense since I'd been rotating for 4 months at that point. But why are they up again? Not horrible mind you but clearly going in the wrong direction. Sometimes life just isn't fair. : (

Back to my weekend. I was thrilled to have absolutely no plans. I felt like I’d been doing the bare minimum since getting back from Florida and it showed. EVERYWHERE. Amanda coming to dig hostas on Sunday was the only thing on my agenda so I was free to catch up on everything. I started on the desk, which was piled with paper and crap. I actually found an unopened birthday card (that was 2 months old) and a valentine. Nuts. I also found some missing paperwork so it was all good. I went through a huge stack of newspapers, read what I needed to (not much) and added it all to the recycle bin. That felt huge and went a long way towards feeling less behind on things. I also got all my knitting (yarn and projects) photographed and updated online. Yay! 

With the paper all tackled, I had Sunday for chores and cooking. I spent a chunk of time on the phone with friends and when Amanda called to postpone, my only commitment was gone. It was actually hot outside (84 – broke another record) but I went outside and pruned all my roses and cut back the sweet autumn clematis, all of which went into the trash and to the curb. I ended the day making pork roast, curried cauliflower and a big pan of sautéd zucchini so would have food for the week. After my weekend at home, I was fully recovered and feeling back on track. Now for some spring weather at times when I can work outside please. While I wait for that (hopefully not too long), here’s a springy pic of the primroses I put in the ground last fall. Have I mentioned how much I love spring? Enjoy.

Week 13 - Happy in Spring

It was spring break week at UNL so with no swimming and another hour of daylight, I had high hopes to get outside after work. And with a podiatrist appointment at 9:00 on Monday and no power pump either, I got to sleep in on Monday. Now that’s a nice start to a week, especially when my Mondays are such long days with knitting after work. The weather was spectacular but knitting prevailed.

The weather was nice Tuesday too but I had the rescheduled knitting at Anne’s with Kate after work so enjoyed a lovely night of lasagna, knitting and chatting. Unfortunately the weather turned cold that night so working outside was off the list for the rest of the week. Bummer but I had to keep telling myself it’s only March.

The work week was fine. I had training both Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and both were in alternate rooms I’d never trained in because our training room was down for the count during the Payroll/AP remodel. Both rooms had challenges but I did manage some modified training so felt good about that. I was also the answer woman on Friday, doing a project that made my boss happy and another dig into ancient data files for one of the accountants, who thanked me in front of the boss. Golden, right?

On the diet front, I was preparing for another rotation but this one with added fat. I’d decided to stick with my regular rotation menus but add fat because what can you take away from a 600 calorie day and not keel over? So after a stock up at Aldi on Wednesday, I was ready to start a rotation on Thursday morning. With all the emphasis on fat I was short in the produce department but cobbled together a salad with grilled steak, homemade oil/vinegar salad dressing and a small avocado. Well, I ate the salad, which tasted like heaven with the added dressing, at 12:30 on Thursday and at 6:30 that night was still not hungry. I had to force myself to eat my swordfish and veg dinner only because I didn’t want to wake up starving in the wee hours. So, with the added fat completely stopping my hunger, it was now a matter of seeing if I would still lose weight.

Besides the lack of hunger, Thursday evening was particularly nice. I had just hung up with Andrea to let her know I’d be dropping something at the office on the way home when my radio station had a contest. I figured what the heck so called and won. It’s a $50 gift card to Defy Gravity, which I’ll never use but can donate to the library for a summer reading program prize. Then I stopped at the farm store in Wahoo in hopes of finding some of the Science Diet I’ve been feeding my cats for years that has been discontinued. Not only did I find 2 bags but they were $5 off. Nice to have a couple of months more on their regular food before I have to find something else. Then I got home to find 3 packages, which is always fun. I got some orange sandals I’d ordered (I tried some on in Florida but they didn’t have my size so when I found orange ones on clearance, I had to order them), a box of yarn from ebay (total score) and an herbal supplement for sleep that Carolyn had recommended. Adding that it was too cold to be outside so I could have fun knitting and watching TV with no guilt was the icing on the cake. Yay!

Saturday was the annual gardening conference in Council Bluffs, Iowa that I go to every year with 3 other master gardeners. I had purposely tried to choose different sessions topics/speakers than I normally do and so enjoyed learning some new things. The diet was out the windorw though. I ate the bag lunch that was included and had 2 hours of eating veggies in my last session, which was from one of my favorite speakers – Elaine Fenner. She’s a magician with veggies. It was a long but satisfying day and I had Sunday yet for productivity.

I started Sunday with a weigh in and was thrilled to see that I’d lost 6 pounds in 3 days of my rotation menus + fat. Now a bunch of that was water I’m sure but still. I then went on to slam through all the chores for the week. It was Easter but that’s a non-event for me. I usually try to spend it outside but with a weekend’s worth of chores to get done (and the cleaning lady was coming Tuesday so they had to be done), I didn’t have time. I did enjoy hanging out the laundry and managed to sneak in some yarn dyeing that came out exactly how I wanted (I was aiming for the color of red maples about to burst their buds - so a combo of the gray trunks and bright maroon buds) but the rest of the day was all inside. I spent the evening prepping all the produce in my fridge, ending with all kinds of healthy things to eat all week and 2 big bags of scraps for Lori’s chickens. All in all, it was a good end to a fun week and again, it’s still only March. I’ll get outside to garden in April. I do love spring. Enjoy!

Week 12 - Fun Full Saturday

So I started the week on moral high ground, getting up at o’dark thirty to go to Power Pump despite the time change. The boys both called in sick so it was quiet in the office but I had more data to pull (more from Friday’s request) first thing and again at the end of the day. I didn’t get to leave early so was rushed but it was a pleasant time, as always, knitting with friends.

There was a thunderstorm at 1:30 Tuesday morning that woke me up then my coffee pot went off at 2:30 (the clock display is hosed so resetting for the time change is always a challenge) so I got up to make my thermos so it would be hot for work. Needless to say, I was tired when the alarm went off at 5:50. I dropped my carload of donations at Goodwill over lunch and then went right home to cook noodles and broccoli to go with the stroganoff I’d made Sunday. Yum!

I had some drama on Wednesday night when I got home from swimming. I came home to find Wrennie, my skin and bones ancient kitty, covered with bloody spit and clawing at her mouth with her tongue hanging out. I couldn't see anything when I yanked her jaw open and I had no idea what to do. The act of opening her mouth must have fixed somthing though because she calmed down, slept and cleaned up her 3 icky feet. Then she wanted food. Thursday morning it's like it never happened. I wonder if she was losing a tooth or something? I thought I'd be taking her to the vet and probably putting her down. Big relief!

The rest of the week was same old same old – produce shopping at Fresh Thyme on Wednesday (love their ad overlap day!) and thrift shopping at lunch, without Dodie, on Thursday. I scored some nice yarn, which is always a treat. The week was over before I knew it.

I was double booked for Saturday. Despite having lunch plans with Andrea and Lori for their birthday, I couldn’t say no when Darla wanted to do breakfast. I met her at Cook’s Café for breakfast then we shopped at the nearby plaza – Big Lots, Joann’s and a brand new Tuesday Morning – until just before noon. After a quick stop at the market for ricotta, I headed to Wahoo. I just had time to drop my purchases before heading to Chips, where we had a nice lunch. The icing on the cake was the look of joy on Drae’s face when she opened the Victory Garden of Tomorrow chicken sign I’d bought her.

The weather was also worth mentioning. In the 2 hours we were at Chips, we saw it all – snow, both flurries and big flakes, sleet, hail and blazing sun. Luckily it was all done and just back to gloomy by the time we left but sheesh! Gotta love Nebraska weather.

My cousin Debbie called Saturday night. You could have knocked me over with a feather! She was calling to say she might be coming in May but we had a long catch up since we hadn’t talked in ages. What a nice end to a fun day.

Sunday was typical chores mostly. I did make a pan of lasagna to take to Anne’s on Tuesday night and a pie (strawberry/rhubarb) to take to knitting. It never got warm enough to work outside. The early time change screwed me up again this year. I want to be outside because it’s light late but it’s just not warm enough, despite the early spring this year. Oh well, maybe it will be next weekend. I live in hope.

Week 11 - Stress and Yarn

It was a stressful week at work. Lots of trickle down stress – boss is stressed so supervisor is stressed and everyone shared down. Yikes! A co-worker and I vented over Starbuck’s one afternoon and I did some stress yarn shopping at lunch one day too. Something worked because by the end of the week, things were calming down. I had a nice dinner with the water aerobics gang on Thursday after work and it was looking good. Until I got a rush data request from the Vice Chancellor right at the end of the day Friday. Needless to say, I was ready for the weekend.

I had nothing scheduled for two whole days so vowed to dig in at home. My goal was to go through all of my clothes AGAIN and tackle the yarn mess in the spare room. The bed was piled with both clothes and yarn so they pretty much had to be tackled together. Luckily I had neatized most of the house early Friday when I woke up at 4:30 and couldn’t fall back asleep (how’s that for cup half full thinking?) so went home to an already picked up house, which meant I could start all the sooner.

After a quick trip to the bank Saturday, I started slogging. I cleared off the spare bed, dumping clothes in my bedroom and yarn in the front room. Since I wanted to do laundry sooner rather than later, I went through clothes first. I tried on at least 50 shirts, deciding as I went between hanging what fit, saving what would fit soon (hopefully) and splitting what was leaving the house between Goodwill and Helen. By mid-afternoon, I was done with the clothes and so started sorting yarn. I petered out late afternoon but still had all day Sunday.

The petering out coincided with some TV and knitting. Well, I got sucked into a pledge special on PBS by Dr. Mark Hyman. I had read and liked one of his early books – Ultra Metabolism – so was gripped by his new book – Eat Fat and Get Thin. He’s all about MUFA’s (monounsaturated fatty acids) and his new book was taking it a step further. He was espousing adding large amounts of fat to your diet on the premise that our bodies need fat and the whole low fat era has left our bodies starved, which he said has slowed our metabolisms and lead to binge eating in an attempt to replenish the fat we’ve excluded. Everything he said resonated with how I feel after a 3 week rotation where I’ve eaten almost no fat. The overeating and subsequent weight gains I’ve been experiencing on my off weeks were exactly what he was describing. I was going to have to find out more about this.

Anyway, I finished the rest of the yarn sorting and storage Sunday morning so spent a cozy afternoon cooking for the week. I made sloppy joes, cranberry walnut cole slaw and tapioca pudding for lunches, 2 pies for Pi Day (Monday) – one for work and one for knitting – and made hamburger stroganoff to eat for a couple of suppers. I was even a big girl and did all the dishes when I was done cooking. So all in all, it was a very satisfying weekend. I’d made it through my projects and chores, had a fridge full of food for the next week and had recuperated from the stressful work week. Nothing like playing with yarn to bring me back to center. : )

Week 10 - Desperate for Recharge

For all intents and purposes, spring has arrived. Now it might end up snowing yet but in the meantime, I sat in shirtsleeves on a bench in the sun on Monday at Hazel Abel Park. It was a 600 calorie day so I’d already scarfed my lunch earlier so enjoyed the sunshine instead of food. Daffodils were just a few days from blooming and I had the park to myself. It was lovely.

The lack of calories left me energy free by the end of the day and I was moving in slow motion as I neatized the house after knitting so it’d be ready for the cleaning lady. I was determined to get it all done because I’d been sleeping badly and didn’t want anything hanging over my head. Alas, it didn’t help. I slept like crap again.

Tuesday was monthly reports so the day flew by. I had bought the ingredients to make a pan of lasagna for Helen, who is home recuperating from surgery. That’s what I thought anyway. I didn’t have any big cans of tomatoes but cobbled some sauce together and had it simmering when I went to pull the cheese out, only to find it was shredded cheddar instead of mozzarella. I had to get dressed again and head to the market. I put it into the oven and it was torture smelling it when I was on another 600 calorie day. Eyes on the prize! I was exhausted but couldn’t fall asleep again so got up and took a shower at 11:00, after which I finally fell asleep. I was beginning to think lack of vegging was having an impact.

I finally got some relaxing time on Wednesday – first with a lovely concert by the Chiarra String Quartet at the library over lunch then when I got home after swimming and sat watching Survivor and knitting. Finally some vegging! It helped because I slept well at last.

Bernie was on campus Thursday, which was kind of fun. Thousands of people lined the street in front of my office and we heard periodic cheering all morning while they waited to get into The Lied Center. I had a nice lunch at Noodles with Dodie and then went right home after work, which felt decadent. I slept well again so was beginning to feel better.

Friday was my normal lunch with Layton then I dropped my car at Auto Connection to have them unrotate my tires, which fixed the horrible road noise. I had corn chowder in the fridge for a knitting night at Anne’s so we could hang with Kate, who doesn’t swim anymore so we don’t see her. But she called Anne and cancelled (sick) so we bailed. I gave Anne half the chowder, went to the pool and then went home for the weekend. With dinner cancelled, my weekend was completely free and I was insanely excited about it.

My goal for Saturday was to sit in the sun and knit, staying in my jammies as long as possible. Success! I got up early, started knitting and didn’t get moving until 2:00. I can’t say I accomplished much of anything at all but it felt wonderful and was the much needed recharge time I was desperate for. I could barely keep my eyes open and went to bed at 8:30. Clearly much needed.

I woke up Sunday at 5:30 and felt like a new woman. I had the kitchen and family room picked up, dishes soaking and laundry done before the sun was up. It was also my first day not rotating so I had a yummy breakfast of oatmeal with raisins. How far I have come that that felt like a treat? 71 pounds down, btw. 

Anyway, when Lorri called to say she couldn’t stop after church because she needed to go to Omaha to pick something up at Barnes & Noble, I offered to go with so we could catch up on the way. We had a nice chat and did a bit of shopping but I was still home by 4:00 in time to enjoy a cup of tea. It was 75 degrees so I opened the windows and started cooking. Baked cauliflower cheese (another treat that’s still pretty darn healthy) and ham. Yum! Then I made bread pudding to take to knitting and steamed Brussels sprouts to go with a casserole I pulled from the freezer for later in the week. By the time I was done, it was time to sit down to the Downton Abbey finale. What a nice week and more spring weather to come. Enjoy!

Week 9 - Total Spring Fever

With gorgeous spring weather dominating the week, I couldn’t help but be in a great mood. Everything just seemed better with spring in the air – a new cashmere blend sweater that felt lucious and perfectly matched the shawlette I designed myself, going to the The Lady in the Van with Anne, losing more weight on a 1200 calorie week… All good. The work days flew by too. I trained 2 afternoons, which always makes them fly, and had meetings every other day (a rarity for me) so the work week was over in a flash. I may have overscheduled my weekend a bit but even that all worked out and I lived to tell. There seemed to be nothing that could befoul my mood. Spring is the absolute best season! Am I right?

The weekend started with a retirement party for one of my database customers at 4:30 on Friday, which I thoroughly enjoyed for the half hour I was there. Then it was off to swimming and then to the hospital to visit Helen. I stopped at Fresh Thyme on the way there to pick up a wrap to eat in the car and a lovely primrose for Helen. I got home at 9:00 and by the time I put groceries away, it was time for bed. Anne would be at my house at 8:45 to head to another auction in Fremont. 

This time Anne wanted the cone yarn. I was just going along for the ride. Denise, my auction buddy from last week, was there so Anne and I sat with her and the acutioneer recognized me and agreed when I suggested the yarn NOT be the last thing up for bid. He was true to his word and it was up just after noon. Unfortunately an antique dealer who wanted it all was there and kept bidding the price up, leaving just a few skimpy cones and odd cakes for Anne to get for $15. I wish I’d bought some for her when it was so cheap the week before. Oh well. She got some and we were on the road and back to my house by 3:00, which felt like a gift. I gave Anne 2 of the cones I’d gotten the previous week and caked some too. She left happy and I got to enjoy a cup of tea in the sunshine. Since Sunday would be another early day, I started my laundry too. I went to bed early because Sunday was another early day. If only I’d known how early….

I was scheduled to pick Andrea up at 9:30 for an Omaha run - something we hadn’t done in awhile. A Penzey’s coupon for 2 free jars of Pie Spice was our impetus for going but we had other things on the list. Well, I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and was wide awake so got up and started plowing through the spare room. Our first stop was Goodwill so I figured I could cull some clothes that no longer fit to add to my donate pile. By 5:00, I’d reorganized the piles and there was stuff all over the floor but I was getting tired again so went back to bed. I thought I’d just lay there but at some point I fell back asleep and didn’t wake up until 8:45. I had just enough time to eat some breakfast, get dressed and load the donations into the car before picking Drae up. I wasn’t even late. I only found one thing at the second of the two Goodwills we stopped at while waiting for Penzey’s to open but offloaded donations so it was still good. With our Pie Spice jars in hand, we hit Trader Joe’s and then Aldi before heading home. I was home mid-afternoon again so even though I’d had 2 early mornings, I had relaxing afternoons at home to make up for it. And the weather was still gorgeous so I enjoyed my first steak grilled outside on Sunday night. More spring wonderfulness. Gotta love it! Now to get those piles from the spare room and all my auction goodies put away before the cleaning lady. It’s always something. : )