all we have on our TVs are $15 sets of old-timey rabbit ears. They work great!

G'afternoon, All!

I had physical therapy this morning and then one of my film groups immediately after. I was thinking of running some errands this afternoon, but it's rainy and gloomy and none of the errands are critical, so I think I'll just stay home and read. Or nap. Or maybe make some protein muffins.

I have a third cousin whom I've never met who lives in California (our great grandmothers were sisters back in what is now Romania (at the time it was part of Austria-Hungary). We "met" via DNA testing and have been Facebook friends ever since. Anyway, I found out last night that her daughter just accepted a job in Madison (where I live), so I told her to please give her daughter my email address and phone number - we can be her home away from home! (and at minimum, I want to meet her!). And the really weird thing is that her OTHER daughter will be moving to Reno to do her residency in psychiatry - and my sister lives in Reno! So weird. Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting the one bound for Madison! (wouldn't our great grandmothers be weirded out that their respective great granddaughters would meet up over 100 years later in a country thousands of miles away??)

QOTD: I almost never cry, at movies or otherwise, but I did shed a few tears at the end of an Irish film called "Nowhere Special" that I watched for one of my film groups a few weeks ago. It wasn't one of those movies that was intentionally trying to manipulate my emotions (which ticks me off..) - it was genuinely a sad movie. Everyone at the discussion group had the same reaction.

B: plain Greek yogurt with a sliced kiwi, coffee with half & half

MS: I had a rugelach and a mini scone at the film group meeting (I hate it when people bring food! It's hard for me to resist!)

L: protein shake

AS: probably yogurt and something crunchy like Skinny Pop

D: broccoli cheese soup - not sure what else

Have a great day, everyone!

Hi All!

I really do need to start coming back here regularly. My weight is up a bit, and I need to get a handle on it before it spirals out of control.

Greg is retiring at the end of May, and I've got to turn my Medicare stuff into the state's personnel office since I go on Medicare in August. With both of these situations, our health care will be changing (the payment for Greg's, who's a few years younger than me, will be coming from a different source starting in June - and it'll change again in August since Medicare will become my primary payee, which will lower our premiums, but complicate things a bit - at least on our end - but I think this will work out fine).

QOTD: I don't mind painting. I used to like doing minor electrical things (like hanging new fixtures and replacing outlets), but after sparks flew out of the wall when I was trying to switch out a bathroom fixture once a few years ago, Greg forbade me to undertake any more electrical projects, even minor ones.

here's what I had today:

B: plain skyr with homemade blackberry compote (cooked down with lime and artificial sweetener), thin slice of homemade wheat toast with about 2 t of mixed nut butter

L: protein muffin with whipped cream cheese

AS: Skinny Pop popcorn (6 cups of it - whoops)

D: thinking about a salmon fillet and broccoli. (I'm already drinking a glass of wine, which unfortunately is something I think about every day, but I'm forcing myself to just have one about 2-3x a week and not every day. I've got an addictive personality, so I need to NOT get too used to this!!)

hope everyone had a great day!!

P.S. forgot to add that I attended a cardio/strength class at my gym - but virtually (it's cold and rainy out!). Twenty minutes of low-impact cardio and 25 minutes of strength training. I do enough cardio on my own, but not strength training - so this will be a good way to get back into it, since it's pretty light. They have this class 3x a week..

Mornin' All!

I really need to get back into this - have been eating too much lately and I need to get back control. I was hoping I'd get a metabolism boost after my hip replacement surgery (seven weeks ago), and I probably did, but between inactivity the first three or so weeks, and too many calories given the inactivity, I did not lose any weight. Boo. (at least I didn't gain, but still, I should have taken advantage of the boost!)

I think I was still regularly posting back in January when we moved my mom into assisted living. She loves the place, thankfully. Loves the apartment, has a group of friends she regularly eats with, and they have tons of activities, and she goes to lots of them! Whew. Such a relief. I'm going over there later this morning to give her a pill (she's really bad with dates and time, so when she gets some prescription, I or someone on the nursing staff really needs to administer it. If it's just for a day or two (like this one), I normally do it since she lives pretty close to me). Then I'm taking her to a doctor's appt this afternoon - and another one tomorrow. They do have a driver at her place who can take them to appts, but her memory isn't the best and she often can't answer questions the doctor asks - or she gives them wrong information. So it's better if I take her and go into the exam room with her.

QOTD: well, I've had a ton of plastic surgery, but I never had my thighs done because they're not awful, and unless I'm in a swimsuit (water fitness classes are my primary exercise in the winter), no one would notice - but I don't like looking at them. At one time I would have added my right hip, but the surgeon fixed it!

B: Greek yogurt with diced mango, toast on whole grain/seed bread with light butter and jam

L: I'll probably have lunch at my mom's place or we'll stop somewhere on our way to the doctor's office

D: either a protein bowl (lentils, sweet potatoes, 1/4 an avocado, cottage cheese, hot honey) or a tuna/chickpea salad sandwich with salad or fruit

I usually have snacks (unfortunately..that is my downfall - esp late afternoon), but I won't be home for that today. Might take a protein bar with me so I don't maw at dinner (or else eat a bigger than normal lunch so I won't be hungry until dinner time...)

have a great day, everyone!

Mornin' All!

we're taking my brother back to the airport this morning. I'm bussing back because Greg has to go to work afterward. I was planning to get off the bus downtown or on campus and walk around a bit before hopping back on the bus and heading back home, but it's supposed to start raining around 11:00 and rain all day, so..maybe not. I'll probably just take the bus all the way back home (haven't been on our new and improved route beyond downtown yet - it's fabulous that we can now get all the way to the airport on our neighborhood bus line (no bus changes involved!))

QOTD: I'll have to think about this. The only thing that I can think of now is some name that's not a legal name + a nickname. In other words, I'd want my legal name to be the same as what I'm actually called. My legal name is Patricia, which I never use, and I cringe every time someone calls me "Pat". Not that "Pat" is a terrible name, but it's NOT my name, and I get really tired of correcting people. I'd also have to have a one-syllable first name since my last name is four syllables. Otherwise the complete name would be way too long. I'll have to give this some thought and circle back.

B: plain skyr with blueberry/lime compote, thin slice of Danish rye bread with light whipped butter and cherry butter, coffee with half & half

L: either veggie chili or a small grain bowl

S: yogurt bark and/or Lesser Evil popcorn

D: we have leftover pizza but I may do something else. I'm not a huge fan of leftover pizza. Maybe whatever I don't eat for lunch I'll eat for dinner

have a great day, everyone!

chronic constipation is a pretty common problem after WLS. A lot of us (including me) take a capful of Miralax every day to keep on top of it.

G'Afternoon!

my life seems like a whirlwind lately - and it won't let up for a while, unfortunately. I have my hip replacement surgery on Dec 18th and am looking forward to spending several days in my pajamas just reading and watching movies (and getting up to walk around the house several times a day, I'm guessing - they want you using the thing right away). Before then, in addition to everything else, I have to get this house in order. We'll have a cat sitter coming in every day to help DH with the cats. All four get meds, but I may only be able to handle one of them for a while after my surgery (he's easy-peasy - never puts up a fight). Two of them can be a huge struggle to medicate and I'm not sure I'll be able to do it will standing with a walker - and a third is good with meds in general but gets subcutaneous fluids, and I'm not sure I'll be able to do the fluids for the first couple of weeks. So at least we'll have help - but I don't want her to see this messy house!

QOTD: there will only be three of us this year (me, DH, and my mom), so I'm getting take-out dinners for us. So I won't be making anything. I'm actually kind of relieved - making Thanksgiving dinner is a lot of work!

coffee with half & half

rye crumpet with light butter and jam

plain skyr topped with cooked, diced apples in homemade SF apple butter

protein shake

Lesser Evil popcorn

probably taco filling with tomatoes, plain Greek yogurt, and salsa for dinner

have a great rest of your day!

I think it looks nice - I especially like the color

Wu-tang - as in Hip Hop? (I'm taking a terrific course on Hip Hop - so I recognize that name!!) (knew very little about Hip Hop before - so I'm glad I'm taking the class so I won't continue to be completely clueless..)

that's weird your insurance doesn't cover phentermine. That's the only thing mine DOES cover unless your BMI is over 30 (or 35? Can't remember). So I'm stuck with that. It does help a bit.

Mornin' Weekenders!

I spent yesterday plowing through a book I had to read for a book discussion group that meets tomorrow morning. I need to get through another one in the next few days because I have a book review due (for a newsletter) on Nov 1 - cripes. On top of that, we went to a Homecoming bash (before the football game) at 4:00 PM yesterday - lots of food there, but I did OK - half a bratwurst, some mixed fruit, and about 1/4 cup of pasta salad. But once at the game - ugh. We had premium seats (thanks to the development director of the Athletics dept (we set up a scholarship for women's hockey in our trust recently - which explains how we managed to get the free tix to the box seats earlier this fall - and the premium seats last night). The premium seat section was attached to this "club" (you could see the game from the club - too - it was part of the stadium and had floor to ceiling windows overlooking the game) - all the free food you wanted. Tons of it. Including things like shrimp and crab legs! I blew it there. Six shrimp and about 1/4 c of roasted root vegetables (both of which were fine) - then I hit the dessert bar - 2 "gourmet" bar cookies and some apple crisp. Then later went back and had some Chex mix, about 2 oz of cheese, and some potato chips with French onion dip. I think that might have been it - but those desserts and Chex mix/potato chips pretty much killed me. Feeling it this morning. I've got two meals out this coming Thursday but I don't think anything else, so it's going to be super light eating most of this week.

QOTD: it's been so long I don't remember much, although I was obviously eating more than 3000 kcal a day, or I wouldn't have weighed well over 300 lbs. Even on my absolutely WORST days post-surgery (like Thanksgiving), I've topped out at about 2500 and felt like hell afterward. I can't believe I consistently ate a lot more than that before surgery - pretty much every day! Anyway, the couple things I do remember is my breakfast. Always a smoothie. Healthy, yes - but SO MANY CALORIES (at least the way I made them!). They would consist of a banana, a couple of peaches or a cup (at least) of melon, some berries, a bunch of plain Greek yogurt or half a chunk of tofu (for protein), and either milk or orange juice to get it going in the blender. So around 500 kcal there - plus the half & half in my coffee. Before I even walked out the door. We had a coffee shop on the first floor of the library I worked at, and I remember going downstairs several mornings a week around 10:00 to get another cup of coffee - with half & half - and a scone. So there's another 500-ish kcal. I usually brought leftovers for lunch. I must have had a snack in the afternoon, but I can't remember what. I did have a mini-fridge in my office where I kept things of yogurt and diet soda, so hopefully just that most days. I remember making microwave popcorn sometimes, though - and not the lighter variety. Dinner - I used to cook a lot more than I do now and I always made healthy things, but then, I always had two or three servings of whatever I made. So yea - just that right there is about a 3000 kcal day. And that doesn't even count the times we went out to eat - or the times I "overate" (compared to what I USUALLY ate...). When I went through my required six-month supervised diet before surgery, the dietitian had me eat 2300 kcal/day. That seemed like a really restrictive diet for me at the time. Do-able, but very restrictive. Now a 2300 kcal day would be a major binge day for me.

coffee with half & half

protein pumpkin muffin and a thing of Activia yogurt

not sure about the rest of the day because I'll be meeting up with my sister at some point (still haven't seen her yet, and she's been here since Thursday night), but after yesterday's blow-out, I will be eating very lightly today!! Maybe something like soup if we end up going out..

have a great day, everyone!

I've been less funny about it in the past because we could carry over $500 from year to year (I think it went up to $600 for 2025) - so I really didn't worry about not using it all. But with DH planning to retire this year, we can't carry any over - whatever we don't use by the end of 2025 is forfeited. My thought was that if it was under $100, I wouldn't really care - but if it was several hundred, that would be a lot. I'll calculate it out, though, now that you mention it. If the tax savings is more than what we'd lose if we had to forfeit the balance at the end of the year, it would be worth it...thanks for mentioning that - I hadn't thought of it that way.