March 4...at least it is here anyway! LOL

catladyksa

Diane, jump in anytime, we usually just ramble on anyway!! But it feels great to ramble!!! Karen, you are going to feel AMAZING once you start to put a dent in your paperwork pile!! Believe me you will!! I just cleaned out the closets and drawers in my bedroom and it feels great!! I am throwing stuff out right and left....so the cats had better watch out!!

I was on another weight loss challenge, and guess I forgot to log in twice and I got booted off! Oh well...so much for the luck of the 'bird pooping on me'!!

I see Pat has found his 'activity'...biking all over the place!! I remember last year when he had trouble even thinking about getting on the bike and taking off for a few miles!! Look at him go now!!

Zac, when is your musical?? Care to 'You tube' a musical number you are in for us to see you perform????

Dee....I know you are a married busy lady now...but do try and drop by and say hello!!

Everyone else......pop in an drop us a line...we are here! I enjoy hearing about what you guys are up too!!

I am off work for 4 days, so will be 'decluttering' my place and throwing stuff out...or saving for a big garage sale!! Next week...I am heading back home for a couple weeks!! Yeah!! But there is 2 feet of snow in northern AZ !! Although it is cold where I am, the snow is not there...yet!! lol

Have a great March 4th...when you all wake up!!!

Nancy

KarenZen

Good morning (or afternoon or evening... wherever and whenever you are). Once again, I'm on the computer, not my phone, so this will probably turn into one of my marathon posts. On my phone, I've overused the keyboard so much that now my e key sticks (I get double e's), and my s and o keys don't want to work at all unless I poke at them over and over again. That makes typing SO much slower and more painstaking than it should be. Of course, we have a desktop and two laptops in the house, but Noooooo, I have to use my phone so I can lie in bed under seven comforters with a cat on my chest.

Nancy, you are absolutely right about feeling amazing now that I'm attacking my pile. Last night, I actually got the beloved man to sign some things and make a couple of phone calls to straighten out some things, and then I sent him off to the town hall today with a form he needs to notarize. I used to be the queen of organized paperwork, but Jim is cursed, I swear. Anything that can go wrong will. The form he needs to notarize is to correct the title of his motorcycle for the THIRD time (first time, DMV changed the first letter of his last name from G to C; second time changed his first name from James to Jomes; this time we got James but the C was back. Seriously???). That's just one of many, many, many examples where his paperwork falls into a crazy vortex, so now I've just learned that we need to look over EVERYTHING very carefully, file EVERYTHING, throw away NOTHING that might be needed in the next ten years. In the pile I finished yesterday, I found a check for $95 (a medical refund), woohooo! Who knows what today will bring?

Since my brain seems to be in an organizing mood, I'm going to put aside some time for meal planning today. The past week has been a bit of a disaster in terms of food preparedness. My fallback is always a protein shake, but I drank the last one yesterday, or soup, but I ate the last bowl yesterday as well. The freezer is full of ice packs and frozen meat of very questionable age and recovery status. The fridge is full of leftovers that I wouldn't dare serve any more as they've transitioned into science experiments by now. I don't have any interest in shopping or cooking right now. Jim's been great about stepping in--last night he made salads and breakfast sausages. Maybe I can find something in the freezer that's worth thawing and throw it in the crockpot. I can't wait for summer when we have fresh produce again and we can throw together big salads and fresh fruit to eat on the deck. In the meantime... it won't kill me to put together some meal plans and do the shopping for them. I just feel so uninspired!

OH.... IDEA FOR A MINI CHALLENGE!

Here's a way to earn some more Spring Fling points:
How about sharing a meal plan (and recipe or link to recipe online)?
ONE point for each meal, up to FIVE points. Post them in the Spring Fling thread. Deadline for completion is Sunday at midnight.

Next week--earn THREE points for cooking and eating a meal from someone else's meal plan.

We should also have an exercise mini challenge for next week. The one that Norah posted in December was great. I might go back and steal that one and use it again.

Yes, yes, I'm still rambling. This afternoon I have an appointment with my rheumatologist. I've been adding back in my Still's meds over the last few weeks, and I need to talk to him about prednisone, aaarrgghhhh. Right before my surgery, I managed to get down to 10 mg., considered a relatively safe daily dose for long term use, but I am having a horrible time on that dose, so now and then I've been taking 20 mg. and feeling much better. On Sunday, the inflammation in my sacroiliac/hip was so bad that it pinched the nerves in my right leg completely. I went to stand up from bed and my leg just crumpled. Thank god I could just fall back onto the bed. Last time that happened, I fell face first into the corner of a desk, twisted my ankle under myself and fractured it. It's pretty freaky/scary to lose all strength in a leg. Since then, I don't trust it at all, being super cautious on stairs especially. I still use crutches, so I always have that support, but getting in and out of the pool at the Y has been a little hairy. I think I'll just take the crutches into the pool with me. Wouldn't be the first time they got wet--I used them boogie boarding at Virginia Beach last year and for getting in and out of the lake. Anyway, the downsides of pred are many, but I really, really want to be able to move more and exercise more, so maybe we can come up with a better short term plan.

I don't know if anyone is still reading at this point, LOL. That's fine if you aren't. I go back and read my own posts, using it as kind of a diary. Maybe I should blog. Or not. Maybe I should channel some of this writing energy into finishing my Bigfoot erotic novel, which is next on the big list of things to do, hurrah.

Hope you are all doing well today. Work hard, play hard, eat healthy, drink lots of water, shake your booties.

K.

carimiller7391

Good day everyone!! I'm in my home stretch of days off until I return to work from Gastric Bypass surgery. I've cleaned and organized my room, my basement and pulled out a lot of stuff for the yard sale we should be having in May. I plan on making kale chips today. There's ice on the ground so I have no intentions of going any place until later today. I still have a stack of papers to shred, so I plan on doing that this morning.

I also need to do some meal planning for next week. First week back to work after 6 weeks off work. Yeah. Hear the sarcasm?? Not looking forward to it at all. Boo Hiss.

Well, off to do my wall push ups and hopefully a video.

Cari

KarenZen

Cari, I added a meal plan mini-challenge for this week. Good timing?

carimiller7391

Karen, with me being 5 weeks out of surgery, my food choices are limited. I will try though.

Cari

ronercat

Nancy, the show runs from March 20th through April 11th. I will see what I can do about getting someone to record a few numbers from the show. From the practices we have had this week it looks like it is going to be quite entertaining.

I want to wish both you and Karen good luck with your tasks or decluttering and paperwork attacking. They aren't fun tasks, but you really do feel accomplished after it is done. I am going to try and find some time (and motivation) to post some meal plans, but we will see what happens after I finish my homework haha.

artelyn

OMG it is finally gorgeous here in the State of Maine!!! Well. If you can call 42* gorgeous. And I can after all this snow and cold we have had. If I was back in college I would be sitting out in a chair in a tank top with a beer. But alas, I am old and waiting for my daughter to get home from school so we can hang out before going to pick up my son from his after school activity. I love half day Wednesdays because I get some much loved Momma/Daughter time!

Thanks for letting me stay and hang out with you all! I really do feel most at home in this group and I will certainly be as supportive with your challeges as I can. I may even do a few myself without earning the points... but just to do them

And Karen, I read your whole post!

I might even steal some meals off your meal plans you post!

Diana from warm and sunny Maine!!!! (you don't hear that very often!)

KarenZen

carimiller7391 wrote: »

Karen, with me being 5 weeks out of surgery, my food choices are limited. I will try though.

Cari

You can give us some good puree recipe. Nom nom nom. LOL

carimiller7391

Karen, this is going to sound awful.... I stuck to tuna salad the whole time. If I never see tuna again.... TOOOOO SOOON.

KarenZen

What stage are you on now, Cari? Soft food? Because I make a fabulous split pea and ham soup, the kind that even people who don't like pea soup LOVE this.

catladyksa

Karen...so can you define 'meal plan' for me please? I just wing it and cook! Are you looking for healthy and tasty recipes?? I may learn something from this project!!

KarenZen

Nancy, a meal plan is part of your food plan for the day. Most nutritionists recommend breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. Some people prefer more small meals. Some don't snack. Ultimately, though, your calorie and nutrition goals should be spread out over the day, so you plan your meals accordingly. For example, my calorie goals are 800-1000 calories/day, and my primary nutrition need at this point post-surgery is 80 grams of protein, so for lunch, I need a meal that is under 300 calorie and includes 25-30 grams of protein. If I burn a lot of exercise calories, I add more food.

In the old days, we used to call a food plan a "diet," but these days the idea of bad or forbidden food has been tossed out--eat what you want if it fits your calorie and nutritional goals.

I'm also a wing it eater, but I'd like to become more of a planner. Winging it leads me to gaining.

If you google "meal plan for diabetics" or "meal plan for clean eating," you'll find all kinds of samples.

K.

carimiller7391

Karen, I'm on soft foods. Don't like peas at all..... YUCKIE... but thank you.

KarenZen

carimiller7391 wrote: »

Karen, I'm on soft foods. Don't like peas at all..... YUCKIE... but thank you.

If you lived closer, I would make you try my soup

catladyksa

I love peas...you can invite me over!!