05/06/2020 Wednesday

Good morning ! Ann, so great to hear from you. Your strength and spirit will make the difference ! Being strong is not all sunshine and roses. Some people don't have a lot of experience climbing out of the hole... you've developed new muscle memory that will work to your advantage moving forward. Now, Shirl and Miss Bonnie, could you put our minds at ease ? I've been thinking a lot about Shel, too, as the diagnosis, graduation party, and first anniversary memories intensify. I smile thinking of what her thoughts, insights and advice would have been around Covid-19.

I've logged 10,000 + steps a day for the last six ! All of my gardening/yard tools are in the back barn (shed) and I've been making a zillion trips a day. When I'm working in the back, I have to use my tool apron, as Atlas considers handled tools as being pivotal to a tremendous opportunity to play keep away. The front porch looks great, if I do say so myself! Will post pictures on FB later.

Weight 122.2, WW Bluepoints 9. This weight is more like it (down 1.4 from yesterday). You know on Monday I took a dose of ibuprofen which I almost never do. Maybe the sodium in it caused the extra almost 1.5 pounds?

Diane, I agree that everything one deals with over life definitely can help us gain strength and Ann is one if the strongest people I know. I too am so glad she is here to advise and chat with us.

I was thinking of Shel a lot when my brothers wife died last week. I think they would have liked each other.

One NEW positive announcement! SIL and I did a Facetime with her son and his fiancé. They are expecting a baby boy on November 1!!!! So exciting. They had originally planned to set a wedding date in the fall but now with an advanced pregnancy and the uncertainty around making those kind of plans they aren't going to. But they may do a small legal wedding before the baby's arrival, then a bigger one when the time is right. And they are actively house hunting. Such wonderful news for SIL who was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer last year! She is doing so well now that she should be able to have some good time with this new grandson. We had both been afraid that neither of us would have grandchildren. I may not, but at least I will have a sweet grand nephew. But we have to be quiet in spreading the news beyond our remote friends as they want to announce to the rest of the family once they figure out how they want to do it.

Stay safe, stay healthy.

I might start weighing weekly instead of daily. Idk. I think daily weighing has been really helpful to my success. IN losing, it was fun. In maintenance it keeps me from doing the whole (eeeekkk I think I'll wait til next week, and the next, and the next". It also, surprisingly, helps loosen the hold of the scale. If I "gain" a pound overnight, I know it's probably not real. BUT I'm trying to lose weight again and I know it'll be slow. So I'm wondering if a weekly weigh in will help.

Liz-how exciting for your nephew!

Ann I'm so glad to hear from you.

I have never felt so sad and isolated, either. And I'm not at home alone. But being with kids 24/7 is challenging. It was hard before but this is bananas. No break from them, ever. No happy things to look forward to. No fun kid stuff.

Soooo....I took them to the zoo yesterday! Our zoo has just reopened to members and they only offer a "walk", one-way plotted tour, by reservation only, at designated staggered time. It was awesome. Better than just roaming the zoo. There wasn't a lot of mask usage (maybe because it was more activity) but people were keeping at great distances most of the walk and all doors were kept open, and in the areas with plexiglass observation, there was a worker standing by constantly wiping it down from others touching. I kept girls in stroller so now worry about touching. It felt SO GOOD to do something fun with them!!

Today I'm getting my hair done. I hope, like Ann, that will improve my mood. I was scheduled to have it done mid-March and I always wait until the last minute and now it's just awful.

I've really been trying to get my steps in recently. Sometimes I think I walk a lot. But I took the girls on a 3 mile walk Monday and that was looooong. Plus it was 90 degrees outside already. Whew. Yesterday was zoo walk. Not sure today. But I'd like to hit that 10k again! I've also been trying to do 1200 calories. Clearly I've been eating wayyyyy more judging by how difficult the 1200 has been for me! Last night Charlotte had a random horrible night's sleep and so I helped myself to fruit loops so I went over by 100-200 calories. Grrrr

Getting back in the eating groove is hard, but as you know it gets easier after a while. I did weekly weighing when I was losing after WLS because I was afraid I mentally would not be able to deal with the ups and downs. Once I got under 125 I started weighing daily for the first time in my life and it was hard to handle up days even though I started to understand how normal that was for me. The only time I didn't weigh daily was last year for most of the time and I regained 20 pounds. So I have weighed every day since 12/18. And I still hate the up days!

I meant to ask, any of this garden tools on amazon? I bought my mom sloggers for mother's day, but I know she needs/wants a lot of fun garden accessories. Just that time to out with the old, in with the new.

I think the way your zoo opened is exactly what needs to happen. Don't just throw the doors open, but put procedures into place that keep people distanced. There is always going to be some risk in just being out of our homes and in public. But risk can be greatly mitigated with some sensible plans.

Weight: 138.2 (down 1.5 pounds)
Veggies/Fruits: 6
Macronutrients: Cals - 1,506, Carbs - 129, Fats - 50, Proteins - 93, Fiber - 23
Fitbit Recorded Sleep: 2'33"
Exercise: 7,225 steps and 1.5 hours mowing/weeding

This is Day 3 of my Return to Healthy Lifestyle Program. In fact, that's what I'm officially calling my life this week. On Monday morning following my therapy session I made a checklist of all the things my long-time healthy lifestyle has included in order to create some daily structure for myself in this very unstructured life that I (and we all) are living, and I'm now checking off activities like an OCD junior high school hall monitor.

Unfortunately, this morning I woke up at 1:00 am and have been up ever since doing a ton of laundry, cooking, plowing through weeks of mail, paying bills, etc. When I start finishing things that I've procrastinated on for a long time it fuels my desire (and gives me courage) to tackle and finish more things. I also wonder if, now that I'm finally upright following my depressive sloth, I'm experiencing a bit of mania? If so, that's a little bit interesting. But I'm not a complete idiot and am breathing through this phase and taking rest breaks to pace myself.

A propos of nothing, last week I bought a Roomba (the least expensive one, not the $900 one!) and am about to find out if that relieves me of some household chores. If only it could wash dishes. Maybe it could double as a robotic pet. Seriously, I would surely benefit from socialization with a robotic pet.

Anyway ... today's big to-do is more mowing. Today and tomorrow are going to be cloudy and dry, Friday brings more rain, but the weekend will be favorable weather for more mowing. Then next week a new monsoon arrives. This year I got a late start on mowing due to surgery, recovery, and a very wet spring. But it's now time to earn my keep.

Thanks to everyone for your warm welcomes upon my return. I appreciate deeply your generous support. I am a little bit grateful for my recent emotional setback, since it gave me a much better understanding of what depression is like for those who suffer from it chronically. It is a *****