Good MORNING!!!!!

So far today I have

•  killed my lower body workout;
• done my weekly "scrub" facial (I will NOT go gentle into that good night);
• started the laundry;
• baked the chicken thighs for this week's work lunch;
• boiled eggs for same;
• cooked and ate breakfast (2 scrambled eggs, 1 cup raspberries, 1/2 avocado);
• did all the freaking dishes;

and it's 8:45 AM.

Holy crap.

Oh, and I also weighed one of the snakes who's very tiny and a bit of a problem feeder.  He seems to be holding his own at the moment, not that this is anyone's earthshattering concern outside of my own and the Gum Zombie's.

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My Whole30 eating is going well.  For anyone wondering if I've gone off the rails, let me assure you I do not suffer.  Again, the plan was to post pictures; however, Blogger seems to lack interest in permitting me to do so for the foreseeable future.  If anyone feels their lives would be complete if only they just had a visual, simply email me and I'll send you the pictures myself. 

But forward!  Here is what I eat on any given day:

Breakfast:
2 eggs, a cup of berries, 1-2 cups broccoli or 12-ish stalks of asparagus.  Today, there was avocado.

Lunch:
Usually it's grilled chicken thigh over sauteed spinach, onions, and tomatoes, seasoned with a boatload of spices (my current obsession is mustard seeds), topped with either diced avocado or a 100-calorie packet of Wholly Guacamole (which is Whole30 compliant), a hard boiled egg, an apple, and a tablespoon of coconut butter.  Uhm, those last two items are eaten on the side, not on top of the chicken.

Yesterday, though, I had about 5 ounces of salmon, a bunch of asparagus, half an avocado, and two of those brown "kumatos" I believe I referenced in a previous entry.  Those things are just awesome.

Dinner:
I tend to go protein/ vegetable/ vegetable here.  Sometimes it's much like yesterday's lunch.  Last night it was a 4 oz. grass fed (I die) burger patty, 2 cups of broccoli, and around one medium sweet potato's worth of oven "fries".

There was supposed to be the second half of the lunch avocado on last night's dinner but I forgot and by the time I remembered, I was full; hence, avocado for breakfast this morning.

So, no.  Not suffering here.  And my abs are back, which is timely considering my belly dance class is performing at a local arts festival this upcoming Saturday.

I would promise to post a picture, but unless Blogger complies I don't see it happening.

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So before bed tonight I need to

• finish the laundry;
• cook and pack the rest of my weekly work lunches;
• bake the boys' chicken tender stash (I buy bulk raw, freeze 2/3, marinate the remainder -- 14 or so tenders -- about 36 hours, then bake up a bunch for their dinners/ snack/ but I'm still HUNGRY! fests);
• go to dance practice (we scheduled a special one, which is good because my Stupid Knee is acting in concert with The Bum Hip to make some of these shimmies a bit obnoxious for me);
• and the boys really both need a damn haircut.  Not sure if that's going to happen, but it's on my radar.

Oh, and Choreboy is finally home from a business trip to California, so tonight we'll be watching the episode of Survivor I taped.  Sweet :)

Laterz!!

Whole30...ish?

So in my ever-ADD manner of dealing with All Things Diet, I'm now on a Whole30 kick, initiated by our beloved Norma.  Theoretically we're doing the 30 days for the first 30 days in May, but I started a few days early because Choreboy and I are going to the beach for a couple days mid-month so I wanted to at least give myself a good stretch of time for the Whole30 eating plan, and then I, personally, will start a for-real Whole30 when we return.

Now this isn't to say I'm being slackerly with my implementation.  I'm going full bore even knowing I'll be doing this for another 30 days once I return -- no grains, no legumes (including peanuts and soy), no sugars (real or artificial), no dairy (yes, this includes my beloved cheese), no booze (not even for cooking)... you get the picture.  Instead I'm eating solid proteins of meat, fish, and eggs; good fats like my olive oil, coconut oil (it's not sweet -- who knew?), nut butters, and nuts; and fruit and vegetables.

I drink water.  And coffee.  Lots and lots of coffee.  Although I'm dialing it back today, a step which has my coworkers recoiling in horror*.

Anyway, I'm not starving by any calculation.  Breakfast yesterday (okay, and Monday and Sunday as well) was two eggs, a cup of blackberries, and about 12 stalks of asparagus.  The whole thing kept me going until lunch.  I would have a picture posted, but Blogger is being rude and won't upload the thing :P

Lunch is my chicken skillet (chicken thigh meat on top of a bed of sauteed tomatoes, onions, and spinach) topped with guacamole, plus a hardboiled egg, an apple, and a tablespoon of either almond or coconut butter**.  Dinner has been chili topped with avocado and halves of these HUGE tomatoes.

No snacks (they're allowed, I'm just not needing them), and no starvation.  Works for me.

All I can say is that I'm really glad I quit Diet Coke three weeks ago, or else by now I'd want to Kill All the Things. Surely going from 12 cups of coffee to 2 won't be an issue...

-----------------------------

In exercise news, all is well on the physical front.  I'm still doing upper body on MWF, lower on TThSa, and riding my recumbent exercise bike.  Weirdly, since dropping dairy and everything else, my nose is less stuffy to the point where I can actually breathe with it consistently for the first time since I was expecting the Elder, and my knee actually isn't giving me as many fits as it was. This isn't to say it's in great shape -- it's not, a fact I found out at dance last night.  But I was able to do my supported squats much lower and with more "umph" than usual, which was freaking awesome.

Maybe it's just luck.  Maybe it's a simple correlation and there's no causation.  I don't know -- I'm neither a doctor nor a scientist.  And my allergies could either be fading with the season, or the allergy shots are starting to have an effect... anything is possible, honestly.

But the correlation is there on both the allergy and the joint fronts.  And it's interesting.

That's it for now.  I have an entire rant about the impossibility of finding beef broth without sugar in it (sweet beef, WTF?) but I'm not feeling ranty at the moment so that will have to wait.  Cheerio!


*Hee! Some days it's the little things, yanno? 

**Yes, there is such a thing!  Yes, I was surprised too.  No, it's not coconut oil.  It is white, coconutty nut butter and it is GOOD.  Ingredients:  raw coconut.  Made. Of. Awesome.

Happy-ish Place

I've reached my happy place with my food and activity again.  I'm eating well, I gave up the stupid nightly fro-yo (because I'm forty-freaking-three years old and I finally realized that somewhere within me I thought I needed it, and that was where I brought the hammer down -- nobody needs fro-yo) and exchanged it for a damn apple and almond butter in the afternoon at the office.  The calories were necessary, but the composition of the calories with my current choice is highly superior.

I'm also at week 2 with zero Diet Coke, period.  If I have one can I'll suck down a 12-pack, so I just don't drink it anymore. It's senseless to pay for organic apples (have y'all seen the prices on those??  GACK!!!) and then bath my innards in some chemical stew.  Thank you, no.

I'm exercising daily with MWF upper body (thanks again, very nice husband!!) and TThSa with my limited lower body stuff (supported squats against the wall, and roll-ins on the floor).  I've also still got dance on Wednesdays, what I can do of it, and I'm bringing back in some limited cardio depending on today's Word from On High, i.e., my orthopedist.  I did 10 minutes on the recumbent bicycle yesterday as a bit of a test on my Stupid Knee with no ill effects today, and my plan is to move swiftly to 20 minutes daily.  That would be "swiftly" as in "starting this afternoon".

I think what I'll hear is "do it, and if it hurts, stop".  It's just the second part I have trouble with :P

Where I'm not at my happy place is with the amount of time in a day.  Holy crap, I spent the entire weekend getting food purchased, assembled, and packed up for the week, in between hosing out the house, guiding/ nagging the Gum Zombie with his room cleaning, and changing out the sand boas' substrate and moving their heat sources from a rheostat to a thermostat.

There was also The Weekly Rat Cleanup.  They're cute fuzzy little darlings, but Holy Jesus God do they reek.  And that's with a daily cage wipe-down/ pickup.  No cure for it but to change out the bedding.

And there was laundry.  Still is, for that matter -- I have yet to wash my darks.  The children's clothes are all done and folded, though.  Naturally.  Eyeroll.

Oh, and this morning the male ball python did a doodle, so I got to clean out that happiness. 

Part of me thinks adding the cardio back in is insanity, but it's 20 minutes, and I know 20 minutes not only won't kill me, but at least I can zone out on the machine for that long and not have to deal with anyone else.  I prefer to look at it as a gift.

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Today is Day 100 of my former plan to Get Off the Christmas Weight.  That hasn't happened, and I'm still hovering in the low-140's, which seems to be my winter default.  Interestingly, it corresponds with allergy season which makes me think that perhaps* my allergy pills have some bearing on the difficulty in losing the last bit of weight. I can drop 7 pounds in 4 weeks once I'm off the pills -- I did exactly that last summer -- but not while I'm still taking the Zyrtec daily.

I also noticed that my upswing in appetite and this December's need to eat All The Food coincided with the onset of High Allergy Season for me.

So what this tells me is that I need to be super-careful with my food now, especially when I'm on the allergy meds, because listening to my body is sheer idiocy.  My body is not only a lying liar that lies, it's chemically altered and hormonally challenged (adding insult to injury). My willpower stands zero chance if I open that door even a little.

Moderation can bite me.  Sometimes it works for me, but right now it's not -- I doubt it really ever will again -- and trying to make it work is only going to result in my failure to fit into my business wardrobe. 

As I've said before, I like my clothes.  I fit in them, albeit at the moment on the more-closely-fitting end of their parameters.  I cannot afford an entire new wardrobe.  Ergo, I have to be intelligent and not gain weight.  Since I like a little more breathing room, I believe it's safe to say I'm currently in active weight loss mode for sure.

Ultimately, I'd still like to see 130.  I think 135 is the realistic/ sustainable weight I'll end up hanging with -- I've done it for months on end with relatively little stress, other than the allergy season correlation (not causation -- my pound cake consumption over the holidays is proof against any allergy pill theory, and I own that) but I'd like to at least wave briefly at 130.

I'll update y'all on the orthopedic stuff as the situation warrants.  If I'm being whiny and this is just a middle-age issue, and surgery is too much for the lack of function I'm experiencing, at least I've done my due diligence about it.  If surgery is warranted, I'll deal with that.  Until then, though, I've got to keep moving forward.

I see too many similarities between some of my thought and activity patterns and folks who regain 20+ pounds, and I just can't go there.  My father has, repeatedly.  This stops with me.

*Please note: the italics are not meant to indicate irony -- in this particular instance, they're meant to indicate uncertainty.  Just in case that wasn't clear.

Choreboy = Best Husband EVER!

Sorry ladies, but it's true and there's only one of him ;)

No, seriously, this is what the man made for me:

Please excuse the apocalyptic stash of toilet paper, but there are priorities, dammit.  Ahem.  And the wallpaper is on the list of "stuff we're going to make go away," because it's ancient and hideous.

Anyway, so he didn't form the metal bar from ore dug from the yard, but he did sacrifice his entire closet door and make the holders for my pushup-support/ chin-up/ reverse row/ tricep dip bar.  There's one more slot closer to the ground that I didn't get in the photograph, but you get the picture.

This is a godsend because as I have been griping forever, my lower body is out to get me and there was only so much upper body I could do at home given the weights we currently own.  With this bar, the bodyweight stuff I can do for my upper body has just doubled if not tripled. 

Goal:  to eventually be able to do a REAL pull-up.  That one, at least, should be attainable. 

The dude just rocks.  Love you, babe!

That Tears It

Last night my belly dance class started up again.  I'd missed probably half of the last session due to ongoing issues with my knee, my allergies (still on roid-rage eyedrops and Zyrtec, and have started allergy shots), and my kids getting sick.  But I figured after several weeks of rest my knees might cooperate, right?

Uhm, yeah.  They didn't get that memo.  Especially the right knee.  I even took Celebrex before class, but apparently it didn't help.*  I had to sit down the last 20 minutes because the drills we were doing (Egyptian 1, which is a flat-ball-flat-ball sidestep where the flat food is the lead) caused a lovely, sharp pain to shoot up from my knee with each "flat" step.

Delightful.

I'm going to keep going to class and participate where I can, but in addition to that I've made an appointment with my orthopedist.  It's time to see if there's something to be done about this, or if I just need to suck it up and realize there are some activities I won't be able to manage ever again.

I'm hoping its the former.  My previous stance against surgery is fading in the increasing light of my progressive loss of function.

In other news, I turned 43 last week. It kind of got lost in the sea of taking care of the Gum Zombie's flu-fest, but Choreboy got me a Keurig and I've been brewing massive amounts of black coffee in a variety of flavors.  It's been festive :)

And just because, here's me at 43:

I like the smile lines.  And my eyes are almost aligned with each other, even, which is kind of cool... and unusual, considering my left eye is generally wandering off to the side somewhere :P

At any rate, I'll keep y'all posted on the ortho-stuff.  At least I feel like I'm doing something about it.

Laterz!

*Okay, it might have helped with the aftermath because I'm not limping today, but last night wasn't fun.

Words

'Nuff said.

Happy Easter

Update:  Holy cow, this sounds depressed.  I swear I'm not!  Just sort of laughing at the insanity... good grief, what a weekend.  Oh well, so it goes.  Sheesh :)

AND the Gum Zombie's down for the count with the flu.  Rumor has it he'll survive, and I'm off in a flash to pick up his Tamiflu and also my steroid eye drops that are likely going to make me blind.

Not that they're doing much good at this point.  Once again, I'm near scratching my eyes out.  Adding insult to injury, my male snakes are giving me fits, but you can see my other blog for the details on that -- I'll spare you here.  You can thank me in the comments :D

Until I can breathe again, here's a lovely pork roast I've got in the oven for dinner.  The colored carrots just tickled me, so I tossed them in on top of the regular ones.  I also picked up the multi-colored baby potatoes because... well, purple root vegetables are cool.

Asparagus will round it out, but I'm cooking that later.  This is in low-and-slow at 225 (after its blast at 450) for another 6.5 hours at least.  Happy almost-Easter, folks!

DV Ruminations

[Excerpted from a letter I wrote regarding my own domestic violence experience -- this is pretty much navelgazing, y'all, but you're welcome to read on.  It's just not your standard perky Friday reading fare.  My apologies :) 

Oh, and standard "may be triggering" warnings apply.]

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Growing up hearing about my maternal grandmother's marriage and how she left, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'd never let myself be in a relationship that involved domestic violence.  The second someone reaches out to strike you, you leave.  Full stop, end of discussion. G taught it, Mom seconded it, I believed it.  But over the course of my first two marriages I learned that abuse has more forms than a raised fist.  Between the two of them, I endured every type of marital abuse that exists with the exception of an outright, bloody beating.

What kills me (and this appears to be a universal feeling among various subsets of domestic violence survivors) is that I know better.  I knew it going in.  I'm intelligent, I'm educated, and I grew up in a family where we were taught to be honest, kind, and to use our words -- by anyone's measure, a "good family."

I know it's wrong to talk to people like they're trash.  I know it's wrong to threaten to abandon your family on a regular basis simply as a means of venting your displeasure.  I know it's wrong to withhold money for basic household bills.  I know it's wrong to make your family suffer because you refuse to provide the means to secure adequate medical and dental care.  I know it's wrong to threaten to discipline your children physically to coerce your spouse into behaving a certain way.  All of that is wrong and there is so much more to add that I dare not even attempt a comprehensive list; but every item on that list is a means of one person increasing their control over another.  I get that.  Because every item on that list (and more) was employed against me, by the person I should have been able to trust most.

And yet I let it happen not only once, but twice.  As it was occurring in my life, I didn't see it as abuse.  I saw it as irresponsibility, as idiocy, and at times as plain-out meanness, but the fact that all those behaviors put together created a pattern of abuse just didn't take, and dealing with it turned me into a person I didn't even recognize at times.  Looking back, I still don’t.  It took me finally getting sick of the constant divorce threats from my second husband, leaving him, and then actually sitting there in the Parents Children and Divorce class with that domestic violence cycle diagram staring up at me from the workbook for the reality of what I'd lived for the previous decade and more to actually sink in.

This was all because they didn't hit me.  Somehow the lack of a direct strike was supposed to make it okay.

But it wasn't okay.

I want other people to understand that.  I want them to understand that domestic violence isn't only found at the end of a fist, but also in a pattern of behavior used to belittle and control.  The simple fact of the matter is that there isn't a batterer out there who didn't first start with verbal abuse, with emotional abuse.  Not one.  I remember the story of how G's husband started treating her differently right after they got married.  When she asked him about it -- contrary to common perception, women who deal with domestic violence are rarely voiceless doormats -- he said, "We're married.  No use to be dragging bait when the fish is caught."

That was the first overt sign of things to come.

I'd like fewer women to have to deal with those "things to come".  I'm not sure how to accomplish it*, but that's what I'd like to see.

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 *Actually, how I accomplish it now, outside of putting my limited monies where my mouth is -- including a specific donation this letter accompanied -- is by occasionally sharing about domestic violence on my blog.  I don't want to go nuts with it here, because as I've said before this is not the place.  But on occasion... definitely.  Because I'm a normal, relatively well-adjusted woman who also happens to also be a domestic violence survivor.  If it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody.  The only shame is silence.

Allergies

Never being one to do anything in moderation, my allergy testing revealed that I am allergic to All The Things.  Grasses, molds, pollens, cats, dogs, roaches (!!!)... essentially, if it's tested for on a standard scratch test, I react to it.

The first round of testing was on my back.  Out of 50 scratches, I reacted to 32.

The next round was on my left arm and was injected.  18 shots.  They weren't deep, and at worst it felt like a little bit of a pinch.  I reacted to all 18.

And yes, my left arm and portions of my back still itch.  Thankfully I'm back on Zyrtec at least, and can take Benadryl toward the evening when things get rougher.

What this ultimately means for me is that I'm going to have to take allergy shots.  When someone my age has allergies this severe, to the point where the standard medications -- --antihistamine pills and eye drops -- don't work, it's time to haul out the big guns.  Sure, the steroid eye drops are working except on the worst of days, but one of the side effects from those is glaucoma and considering that my genetics already predispose me to same, I'd rather keep my vision thankyouverymuch.

On the minus side to all of this, once I stopped the steroids my face puffed up.  Lovely.

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So anyway, there we are.  In light of all my lovely allergies I've decided to avoid gluten starting, well, now.  I'm not going to freak if I screw it up, but considering everything I figure it won't hurt to see if I'm possibly gluten sensitive, or at least if I somehow feel better without it in my diet.  I'm not married to this concept by any means :P  I'm more just entertaining myself by using my own body as a science experiment.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Meh...

I feel like I'm in a holding pattern at the moment.  I got down to 140.5, and then my weight did its usual wonky thing where it spiked up to 144 (thanks to a more carb-laden week -- mostly lentils, but it had an impact), then went back down to 140.5 again by last weekend, and THEN...

...Sunday hit, and I started my prednisone in preparation for my allergy testing tomorrow.  I have to have been off all antihistamines for a total of five days prior to that testing, and let me tell you it's been hell even with the steroids.  I'm itchy, my eyes are icky, and I hate this.  I can't imagine how bad I'd be without the prednisone, and regardless of any side effects I'm glad I'm on it.

Speaking of side effects, those don't appear to be awful.  I haven't gotten on the scale since I started the course because I didn't want to have to scream at it, but I'm still fitting into my pants fine and since that's the most important gauge in my world I think I can deal.  It may help that I'm drinking water as if anticipating a trek into the Gobi Desert, and also that I'm not using this as an excuse to eat All The Food.

But I am feeling as if I'm retaining water.  My fingers are a little tight, and my stomach is a bit more poochy than usual.  That'll be lovely for belly dance class.  Looks like tonight's going to be a sports tee kind of night rather than a dance top.

Have I mentioned the itch?  Because I'm itchy.  I loathe this.  I want my Zyrtec back.

More tomorrow, or maybe later if I'm too hive-laden after my testing.  Yuck.  Thankfully this too shall pass, and rather quickly.

Uhm... why????

Here's a map of where my readership comes from:

Okay, once you've settled down from laughing at my rather petite readership (I value each and every one of the six of you!), take a gander at where most of my viewership has been from the last week.  No, it's not the US.  Look harder at the dark green blip in central Europe.

It's the Ukraine.

*blink*

No, I don't get it either. 

So, anyone actually reading today from the Ukraine want to fill me in on what's so fascinating on my sporadically-updated highly-disjointed blog?

I mean, I could almost understand it better if it were my snake blog. 

Who knows, perhaps an English class is using me for their curriculum.  Have mercy.

No Title for You!

Why no title today?  Because in 6.5 years I think I've about run out :P  Or at least I'm out today.  But regardless, forward!

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The scale has gone crazy in the past week.  I've been eating 100% on, just like I have been since January 7th, but last week I was eating the rest of the lentils I'd made over the weekend as opposed to my more standard lean protein/ dark green veg.  The lentils were marvelous, but by mid-week my weight was 144.  The hell?  No, no, no... icky.  When I finally was done with the lentils my weight started going back down and today I was a shade under 141 again, so I'm almost back to where I was like a week and a half ago.  Lordy.

This kind of scale craziness is why I've given myself until April 22nd to lose the entirety of the weight I put on over the holidays.  Sure, I can drop 3 pounds in a week as far as the scale is concerned, but then I can continue on, eating exactly what I've been eating, exercising exactly as I have been, and see zero progress for four weeks.

Then I'll drop another 3 pounds, seemingly "mysteriously".  Eyeroll.

It's nuts.  But It's how it goes.  On average, I lose a little under a pound per week, and considering where my weight is right now it'll take me just that much time to hit 135.

It's frustrating, but it's how my body likes to process things.  At least the scale eventually goes in the right direction, and considering that I fit into all my pants again, overall I'm good with it.

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Finally, because I'm shamelessly hijacking this from Nikki at Furry Bottoms, here are 48 random things about me.  Why?  Because I'm off work this afternoon with the still-ailing Gum Zombie and I figure I might as well :)  And no, there's no "I'm tagging X-people do to this!"  That gives me the headache.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Yes -- my maternal great-great-grandmother.  She was Amanda Jane also.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
Listening to my sister sing O Holy Night over the Christmas holidays.  She's an operatically trained mezzo soprano, did the requisite recital at Carnegie Hall, etc.  At 33, her voice is just now reaching its peak and it is freaking amazing.

3 DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
When it's legible, sure.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
I don't think I have one.  I've been off that track so long it tastes like non-food.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Yup, 2 of 'em, male variant.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
The way I am now?  Yes.  I wouldn't have liked me 10 years ago, though -- I was living in an untenable situation and coping with that had me a bit nuts.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
It's just one more service we offer :P

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Nope -- they were taken out when I was four.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
No. 

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
I don't eat cereal.  Unless you count oatmeal?  If that counts, then oatmeal.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Nah -- although I do end up untying and then retying them when I put them back on.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Hell yeah.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Honestly?  I have yet to meet an ice cream I didn't like.  But my all-time favorite is Breyers Natural Vanilla Bean.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Whether or not they look pleasant.

15. RED OR PINK? 
Neither.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
That at times I'm so absolutely paralyzed by anxiety I cease to function.  It's ridiculous.  Fortunately, those moments are becoming more and more rare.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
My sister, BIL, and niece.  The Divine Miss M is two-and-a-half years old now and is amazing.  We're missing so much with her living in NYC!

18. WHAT IS THE TECHNIQUE THAT YOU NEED TO WORK ON THE MOST?
Telling the anxiety beasts to shut it.  Again, it's getting better (I'd not still be in my belly dance classes if it weren't), but there's still work to do.

19. WHAT COLOR SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
None -- bare feet (it's like 80+ out there).

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
My standard lunch.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
"The Talk".  I have trashy TV tastes when I'm off work with a sick kid.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Forest Green.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Christmas trees, big holiday meals cooking, berry-scented candles.

24. HOW IMPORTANT ARE YOUR POLITICAL VIEWS TO YOU?
I like my own political views, and I really resent anyone trying to push a different opinion onto me. What I believe is what I believe, nothing you say will change it. Don't preach, don't push, don't even try. (this was Nikki's answer and I lifted it shamelessly and in its entirety, because it's how I feel as well)

25. MOUNTAIN HIDEAWAY OR BEACH HOUSE?
Mountains definitely -- but the beach is only an hour away.  And honestly, if someone offered me a beach house I wouldn't turn it down!

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Sumo wrestling.  Yes, I'm serious.  I was in Japan back in 1993 during Sumo season and it was the first televised sport I actually understood.  It's delightfully basic.

27. HAIR COLOR? 
Originally it was dark brown with chestnut highlights.  Now its natural color is "Marilla Cuthbert" iron grey, so it's instead dyed a medium-reddish-brown base with golden blonde highlights.

28. EYE COLOR?
Irish blue-green-grey

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Nope -- I tried as a teenager but my astigmatism is severe and the only lenses I could wear were gas permeable lenses, which were essentially hard contacts, just with a little bit of flexibility.  It felt like I had tin can lids in my eyes no matter how long I worked to wear them, so eventually I resigned myself to the fact that I'd be wearing glasses the rest of my life or view the world through a bit of a haze.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Freaking pound cake.  Dammit.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Happy endings.  I look up movies in IMDB or Wikipedia to make sure the endings are happy.  If they aren't, I won't watch.  Real life is quite enough realism for me, thankyouverymuch.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
In the theaters?  I think it was Magic Mike.  I didn't know who Channing Tatum was before that movie.  Nice, nice, nice looking boy.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Brown.
 
34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Winter, or what passes for it down here.

35. FAVORITE DESSERT?
Effing damn pound cake.

36. STRENGTH TRAINING OR CARDIO?
Strength training.

37. COMPUTER OR TELEVISION?
I'm a multitasker.

38. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
Kim Harrison's Ever After (no relation to Cinderella -- this is the latest Rachel Morgan urban fantasy book)

39. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Dust?  It's dark blue, so... yeah, dust.

40. FAVORITE SOUND?
My husband coming home at night.  Yes, I'm really this sappy :)

41. FAVORITE GENRE OF MUSIC?
It depends on my mood -- sometimes it's bubblegum pop, sometimes it's hard rock or metal.  My MP3s range from Katy Perry to Iron Maiden, with some Bach and Mozart thrown in for good measure.

42. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Japan.

43. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
I read really quickly, although I don't know if that's so much a talent as it is more a symptom of my book addiction.

44. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? 
Near San Francisco, CA

45. WHERE ARE YOU LIVING NOW?
Central Florida

46. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR HOUSE?
Grey wood siding with some faux-stone accents.  

47. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR CAR?
Dark green

48. DO YOU LIKE ANSWERING 48 QUESTIONS?
It's either that or I'm a masochist :)

The "Winter" Plague

We're currently dealing with the annual winter* plague, which means sick kids.  The Elder spent the weekend and yesterday convalescing, and the Gum Zombie woke up yesterday with a fever.  I left the boys with Choreboy while I went on to work (we've been freaking slammed, and it's been awesome because hooray! something to distract me from the clock ticking), and today the Elder went back to school.  The Gum Zombie, though, is still home, and today's my day to stay home with the sickie.

As his temperature rises, he becomes more perky.  I don't get it.  Here's hoping he can go back tomorrow or at least, failing that, he can head to my parents' house while I get back to the office.  I have sick days for a reason but they are limited and we're still slammed.

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Since I was home today anyway I made some whole wheat pancakes for breakfast.  I had two, and measured out my butter and syrup (yes it was real and it was amazing).  Those combined with some blackberries came in just under 400 calories, and while I won't do pancakes every day (I think I make them twice a year) these were definitely worth it.  Lunch will involve a piece of Ezekiel bread with a tablespoon of nut butter of some sort, the rest of the blackberries, and a piece of 2% cheddar.  Dinner's looking like my old faithful of turkey burger with mustard and steamed broccoli.  A snack will figure in there somewhere -- likely apple with either cheese or more nut butter.

It'll do.

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I've been having to work on some new recipes for lean protein sources since we reworked Choreboy's macronutrient levels.  I settled on this recipe for chicken in garlic-vinegar sauce and it was fantastic.  Skinning the chicken was a bit of a PITA, but I got to use my ridiculously over-priced Le Creuset Dutch oven and any day I have an excuse to use it is a good day indeed.

Not only did I love the outcome, so did Choreboy which is a good thing considering he isn't content with sucking down turkey burgers or tilapia every night.  Eh, it helps to break out of my rut as well on occasion.

Next I need to work out a decent low sodium marinade for my chicken that goes on my workday salad.  I'm moving from the pressure cooker to the George Foreman because, honestly, I just can't stand another week of the shredded variant.

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Rat count is still at 4, thank God, so we might have dodged that bullet. Another 10 days and we'll know for sure.

Okay, that's about it for now. I'm feeling sluggish, and I'd better not be coming down with what the kids have had.  Have a good one, y'all :)


*Yeah, I know.  "Winter".  It's 72 now, with a high of 84 expected.  But on Thursday we're not supposed to even break out of the 60's!  Choreboy's gonna be all bundled up -- if the mercury doesn't rise above 70 he considers it a cold snap.

Newsflash

Edited to add the following request, in light of a comment I just received and deleted:

Folks, I respect peoples' rights to believe or disbelieve in spiritual matters as they see fit.  Please do not troll the comments portion of my blog to leave atheist-bashing comments, or any sort of bashing comments for that matter.  Although I personally view myself as a "woman of faith", this blog obviously does not serve as any sort of major platform for my beliefs and I ask that you respect my boundaries in keeping it that way.

Thank you.

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I have allergies!  I know this comes as a shock to everyone.

Eyeroll.

But yes, I went to the allergist yesterday because having to move to steroid eyedrops just isn't a good thing for the long-term.  They're not great even for seasonal use, to be honest -- two of the complications are cataracts and glaucoma, two conditions which I'm also predisposed to thanks to genetics.  So on the 28th of the month I'll be going in for Official Allergy Testing.

What that means is that the last 5 days of February I'm going to be on a dose of Prednisone because I can't have any antihistamines in my body.  Bleah.  I hope a 5-day course isn't going to cause some sort of nasty weight gain.  Is that just intrinsic to Prednisone, i.e., does one just automatically gain weight on it?  Or is it the fact that it makes you so crazy-ravenous that you gain weight because you'll gnaw your own leg off if other options aren't available?

Regardless, that's what's going to happen, so I'll just suck it up and deal.  Hopefully I'll get some relief from this that doesn't involve me risking my future sight.

I had more to say, but somehow I can't remember what it was.  Genius, I haz it.  Okay, since I'm blabbering to no purpose, just have a good day y'all :)

Manic Monday

Yep, totally co-opting the song title, but it fits.  In addition to work I've also got to pick up my steroidal eye drops and take the rats to the vet.  Why?  Because we have to check on how their respiratory viri are doing.  I'm not hearing any more sneezes from them, so that's a plus.

The downside is I'm 99% positive that our three females are all knocked up.  Thanks, Oops! Sigh.

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Super Bowl Sunday was totally a non-issue as far as eating was concerned.  Choreboy and I aren't massive football fans, so we haven't even been paying attention this season.  To let you know how out of the loop we managed to be, I had to ask my mother who was playing and who won this morning.  So food was just that: food.  Saturday I fixed my favorite pork tenderloin recipe (linked here) doubled, so Brent would have some decent protein for the week, and on Sunday I tried out a new lentil recipe (this one).  The lentil recipe calls for red lentils, which I went and purchased.  I'd been curious about them for a while, but I'm cheap so I required an excuse to spend the bucks on Bob's Red Mill.  Well, I won't be making THAT mistake again, because once you've cooked the red lentils they turn into the same, disappointing muddy green the already muddy green (and much cheaper) lentils have!

Guess which color I'll be buying in the future, regardless of what the recipe calls for?

But -- visual disappointment aside -- the lentils were good.  I think the cayenne pepper and the mustard seeds added a bit more "oomph" to the flavor profile, which was fun.  Good thing I like it because I'll be sucking those down all week -- the full recipe makes a ton of food.

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Scale verdict?  140.5.  I'm interested to see how several days of lentils for dinner impacts that.  It's upping my carb intake a bit, so my guess is I might hold steady until I've finished all of them.  We shall see.

Happy Monday, y'all!

Guess it was Legit

141 according to the scale today, so it looks like the downward trend is legitimate.

We'll see what happens over the next few days.  Not in an "I'm going to blow it" sort of way because, uh, no.  That won't be happening.  I mean it more in a "let's see how long my body is agreeable to dropping poundage at this entertaining rate" kind of way.

In other news?  Craving peanut butter.  I could eat a jar right now.

I'm not.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Scale Weirdness

So today in theory I weigh 142.5.  I don't know -- it could be right, it could be wrong.  I mean, it's a pound down again so yay!  But it's also our old dial scale (the only one we have) and I always question its accuracy, even when it's going the direction I want it to.  Oh well, as long as it keeps moving in that direction I'll be happy.

I should trust it, since I've been eating correctly and exercising my butt off (what there is of it that will leave -- even at 135 it's not insubstantial), but since I can eat correctly and exercise my butt off and have it stay static for weeks on end, you'll have to pardon my skepticism.

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So Monday night I introduced Choreboy to the Wonderful World of Weights and Resistance Training!  It went well, and even today he's a bit "ouchy" in his legs and so forth.  I don't have a full range of motion in my lower body for squats and lunges and the like (thanks, stupid knees!) but he does and let me tell you he used it without me even prompting.  The man is inspired.

And I love it, because now I have a partner in crime with all of this :)

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Lastly, the Emily Cat update:  we have no clue what's going on with her and neither does her vet even after two rounds of bloodwork.  The latest batch shows all her gamma globulin levels are up, whatever that means.  So since we don't have just one or two spikes any diagnosis is utterly up in the air.  Could be fungal, could be immuno-deficiency... no clue.  The plan is to start medicating her with both a steroid and an antibiotic and see what effect that has on her health, so that's what we're going to do.  On the plus side, she's visibly eating and drinking.  On the minus side, she's still losing weight and that is, obviously, Not Good.

So, one cat to medicate, 4 rats to medicate (they have a respiratory infection, joy)... next?

Kidding, kidding!!!

Okay, running away to go find some wood to knock.  Have a good one, y'all.  Oish...

Wheee!!!!!

143.5 on the scale this morning.  I'll take it!    It was actually 142.5 on Friday but that was after a rather unpleasant bout of the... well, let's just say I spent lots of time in the restroom.  But seeing an actual loss, even of half a pound?

Yup, that's all mine :)

Oh, and I had to laugh.  Brent and I totally smoked a couple of teenagers who were walking on our usual route last night.  We came up behind them, zoomed past, and one of the girls said to the other "I play softball and I can't even move that fast!"

I told them it was okay; that our expertise was because we had more than 90 years of practice between us.  Hee.

Icing on the cake?  Passing them on the way back -- past the 1/4 mark, even. Wearing my knee braces. 

Like a boss.

---------------------------

Believe it or not, there's more.  The news I'm really psyched about is the Choreboy is finally wanting to do some resistance training.  Wahoo!  I can't begin to tell you how much this thrills me.  I've mentioned before that it's been difficult for me to reconcile the amount of time my workouts take, and the simple fact that this is now something we'll be able to do together to some extent is huge.  We've got dumbbells at home going up to 30 lbs (I'm optimistic for myself, what can I say?), and after that we'll see where we are and go forward. 

Sad thing is, initially I'll be training him.  Oh well, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.  Or something like that.  I at least have good form and safety information, and I know some good basic moves that will get him started.  He's also as bad as I am when something interests him, so I figure once we get going on this he'll start doing his own reading and moving in the direction that's right for him.

What I do find mildly irksome is I've been telling him that if he wants to lose weight he's going to have to do some resistance training for awhile.  He listens, nods, and files it away.  Then when his immediate supervisor confirms what I've been babbling about?  Then suddenly it's something he should do!

Oh well, it worked.  The means makes me gnash my teeth a bit, but ultimately I'll take it :)

---------------------------

And on a final note, one of the rats is now verifiably a male.  He'll be going in for a little snip-snip operation. 

His name is Oops.  It fits.

If we have baby rats I think I might lose what's left of my mind.

More Pants!

More pants that fit, that is -- in addition to my lone pair of khakis, I can now also fit into my dark brown slacks and my black trouser jeans.  Don't ask me how, because that scale is still registering 144, but I'll take it however I can.

It's nice to not be confined to skirts the majority of the week.  Yucko.

----------------------------

Workouts and walks are continuing apace.  Food is a struggle, which bugs.  I'll get through it, though.  I have to.  I refuse to let a season of indulgence sit on my backside forever, because the moment I do that I'll have the next season of indulgence, and the next, and the next, and before you know it I'll be staring at the scale wondering how in the world it could possibly say 200 again.

Hell to the no, y'all.

----------------------------

I'm still entertaining myself with my hair, and am now on the "curly girl" method which has proven to be incredibly entertaining.  You've seen plenty of pictures of my usual hair, which is blown-out/ straightened (yes, that's as straight as it gets).  Well, here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday morning:

 That's just air-dryed.  Ho-ly cow, y'all. 

In addition to air drying, I'm not using shampoo or conditioner with sulfates or sillicones.  I started just conditioner washing a couple of weeks ago, and a week ago I mentioned I'd gone with a baking soda/ vinegar rinse hairwash (which still amazes me by how well it cleaned my hair), and reading more about haircare on the internet, I came across the curly hair folks.

It appears I have curly-ish hair, when I'm not drying it out with detergents and heating it into compliance.

Who knew?  But I think I'll keep at this.  It's significantly less of a timesink than my blowouts were, and with the sweating I insist on doing, it's maintainable.

Plus it looks freaking awesome.

Anyway, that's all I've got for the moment.  Have a good one, folks!

Ease on Down

The scale very politely said 144 this morning and yesterday morning as well for that matter.  I am not offended in the least.  What's silly is how different I feel having 9 pounds to lose as opposed to over 10.  Even just that pound-and-a-fraction was enough to make a big difference in my head.  Weird.

Also, I did the math on my 49,000 excess calories consumed in 35 days and you know what?  That's an additional 1400 calories per day which, mid-holiday insanity, is sadly totally do-able.

I'm living proof.

Still, 5 of the 14 pounds I gained are gone, and I continue 100% on food and exercise.  The only wrench in my future works (oh of course one was coming, because that's life) is that my brother's 40th birthday is Monday, and Sunday we're going out to eat.  That wouldn't be a problem except it's to a damned buffet.  A very nice one with good choices available, but a buffet nonetheless.  Oh well, there will be protein and vegetables available, and those are what I will eat.

You have no idea how hard it was to type that sentence; in spite of the recent holiday foodfest and the fallout therefrom, I still want to hit up that dessert table like there's no tomorrow.  However, I won't.

Thank goodness my "official" weigh-in day is Monday.  I'll take what I can get to bolster my at-times-nonexistent will power.

---------------------------------

Our little ratling is doing very nicely settling into our home.  She's named Sarah, which yes is the recycled name of one of our sand boas, but the Gum Zombie desperately wanted it for his rat as well and I told him I saw no reason at all why we couldn't have a warm-blooded Sarah in addition to our cold-blooded Sarah.  Now I just have to survive the total mind-trip I'm going to have to play on myself when I'm feeding the scalier members of our household tonight.  Because there's Sarah, our pet.  And then there's the frozen food.

Sigh.

Outside of that not-so-little issue, it appears I overlooked the fact that rats are social animals and do much better with at least one additional rat as a companion.  This means our Sarah needs a little fuzzy friend.  I'm hoping I can convince the Elder that he needs his own little rat, because otherwise the new rat will be mine and Choreboy's head will finally explode.  I already spend part of most evenings handling our other critters, and adding one more to my list might be a bit more than any of us can take.

I'm torn also because although our rat is young, she may not have been too young, if you know what I mean.  So I'm thinking that I might want to just sit and wait three weeks* before getting her companion to be sure we're not about to have multiple pet rats already.  Yowzers.  Because no, I could not "use" them for another purpose.  Don't ask me how it makes a difference, it just does.  There's the frozen food I buy at the store or have shipped in, and then there's the cute little fuzzy being in the Gum Zombie's room.  The only way I can manage this is to keep them both firmly established as separate items entirely.

---------------------------------

Still no word on Emily.  I've got a call in on the latest test results.  I'll let y'all know when I hear something.


*Rat gestation is 21 - 23 days.  The More You Know!^TM