What's on your Wednesday Menu?

I thought my skinny clothes would be a motivator for me too, but I ended up replacing one thing at a time when I stretched out of them, so now there is a whole wardrobe up in the attic waiting for me to fit back into it. Here I come!

Let us know if you end up near Boston!

Thank you Julia! If I do head east, I will be living here, at least for a bit:

http://bayheadnj.org/bhnj/

But I love Boston so a side trip is always possible!

Good morning! This is my in between vacation adventures day. Home from CT yesterday, and popped into work to see if I could help out some. It was crazy there so they were glad to see me for a couple hours. On today's agenda is going to the grocery store and target and finishing loading the new RV. Then this afternoon we are off to a private campground.

I need to work on figuring out how to get more calories in I think. I hate to say this on here, because I know everyone struggles in different ways. But even though I thought I ate well and definitely drank more wine than I have since surgery, I lost a pound and a half. And I really need to stop losing. So on my grocery list for today are a few things to add a little bit more carbs back into my diet. And wine, I mean, it is still vacation! CT was gorgeous, but dang, that humidity. This Southern California girl is not used to that. We spent a couple days out on the ocean, and the rest of the time on the family compound. We did have a big lobster, clam and scallop Dinner with all the Fixin's. I only ate the scallops, but my Dad was in heaven with butter dripping everywhere. Made my heart happy.

QOTD: almost never. And the few times I do, never floral.

menu:

B: 1/2 pp shake and coffee

L: TBD

D: charcuterie plate with lots of options for me! And wine

S: jerky if needed and second half of the PP shake

peace everybody!

Glad to hear you had a nice vacation!

I love floral scents, especially soliflores. Overall through the years, however, I've resonated more to woody scents and some gourmand orientals. Back in the day I went through bottle after bottle of Opium, Fendi, Samsara, Magie Noire, and Lauder's Cinnabar. I still love these, but not at the stun-the-room-into-submission intensity level I used to prefer. It's amazing we all made it through the 80's still able to breathe! One woody fragrance I wear and adore is Serge Lutens Feminite' du Bois: absolutely gorgeous, and you definitely won't smell yourself coming and going.

Florals I have and love include a couple by Jo Malone (I LOVE her Orange Blossom), Aerin Lauder's Lilac Path and her Tuberose Gardenia; Jessica McClintock's eponymous fragrance, which is a gorgeous, true lily of the valley, etc. I like many of the fresher Chanel creations as well, but #5 smells better on others than it does on me. As long as I wear it on my clothes, though, it stays true to its beautiful self.

I use essential oils, absolutes, ottos and attars in my business. Yesterday I was working with some gorgeous rose absolute and some rose otto, a few knockout Jasmine absolutes, a couple of amazing white and pink water lilies, some stunning boronia, some heady orange blossom and some more delicate, greener nerolis. Nothing on the commercial perfume !market really comes close to these.

Funny: as I write this, I can smell that heady, beautiful orange flower water absolute. Scent is amazing!

Your not out a whole year yet that is why you are still loosing. Until the malabsorption stops you'll continue to loose. It won't kill you. You may not look great but as soon as this honeymoon period is over it will be nice to have a little grace period to gain. I would not worry about loosing to much unless your surgeon thinks there is a problem. Glad your back and enjoyed your vacation.

The silliest mistake people make is thinking they need to gain weight back. Somewhere around year three the weight comes back and most people gain an extra 20 pounds. It is smart to keep losing until you are 10, 20, or even 30 pounds under your goal, because the bounceback phase is very rapid and very real.

It is OK to look too skinny for awhile. It is almost impossible to find someone who looks too skinny after year three.

The only caveat to that (losing 20-30 pounds beyond oal) is one of immune function; it's something to be aware of. Covid-19 is still snaking its stealthy, evil way through humanity, wreaking havoc. Going down to a seriously underweight level can stress your immune system, and if you do get sick, you have no cushion, and everything about your physical being is more on edge. My RnY surgeon advised me, at right around 126 pounds and with a Dexa-determined bodyfat % of 15.9, to gain from 5-10 pounds for exactly that reason. I did gain it, but without intending to, at right around year 3, grrr! But I am losing that because I simply prefer being just a little bit thinner. I have upped my fat intake a bit regardless, via things like salmon and occasional avocados. I think that for many of us during the weight loss phase, it's hard to imagine ourselves ever being actually underweight! People tend to set quite moderate goals for themselves, though while heavy those moderate goals sound quite amazingly thin. Some of us happily reach those goals and segue into maintenance, while others keep on trucking and reach stretch goals they never were able o truly envision as possible for themselves. I am not happy I gained, but I am very encouraged to have only 3 more to lose. My original goal was just to get under 150, but I went down to 123, which was actually rather shockingly thin for me. So I went up to 126-ish and was very happy there! Going back as we speak!

So True! My original goal was 145, modified to 125 as I really began to comprehend the process. I've dipped to 113 now, but at 5' 3", I'm still within a healthy range. It's so very interesting to watch this process. So far, 120 seems to be a perfect weight for me. But, I am letting the dice roll here and will continue to worry about protein first and foremost and see what happens. Thanks for the feedback. It's very reassuring.

Thanks, Teenie!

my surgeon is monitoring me monthly and is not alarmed. And I do want the grace space. Ok, I'm going to try to relax about this. Because yesterday I was utterly awful about adding more in. LOL!