Second Quarter of 2016: April 3-June 30: Winners All at Losing Weight!

mdubbs1

Pam - we had small baked potatoes and steamfresh corn. I ate my potato skin and 1/2 the potato, measured out the corn and felt quit virtuous!

Jean - sorry if we made you hungry for meat loaf! I feel so much more in control knowing what I was eating.

Helene - have fun with the planting. Our cool rainy spring is driving DH crazy! No idea what "crops" we'll get this year.

I lost a pound last week. I'm half a pound from getting my 30-lb bear out of hibernation.

KonaKat

Helene--The annuals will work well. I have seen some lovely potted flowers. Good job on the decluttering. I was reading one of those books that I downloaded free from the Kindle Unlimited library. I reinforced what I was thinking. One item a day removed without anything replacing it is 365 items in a year. Of course, it takes extra effort to get rid of the excess to get to this point.

I am having the Quaker Weight Control oatmeal for breakfast. Then I will get ready to head for the capital city.

Helene610

I like the idea of one item a day. You don't realize how much you can get rid of in a year but doing a little bit at a time. No planting got done today. It started raining overnight so the plants are soaked right now. They'll dry out in a day or so and then we'll plant. The rest of the week is supposed to be nice.

mdubbs1

I was SO hungry yesterday even though I had eggs/whole wheat roll for breakfast, turkey and salad at lunch and high protein pizza for dinner. I don't often feel that danged hungry. I don't know what was up.

I bought a package of high protein pizza crusts on netrition and decided to try that last evening. It says cook directly on the oven rack but no way was I doing that in my "still feels/looks new" oven so I used foil. I measured out the sauce, FF cheese and turkey pepperoni so I knew the calories. It wasn't bad but wasn't great.

I'm going to have wonderslim pancakes for breakfast with 1/2 a banana smushed in. I seem to only want eggs or pancakes these days. I guess I'm in a temporary rut!

I need to go to the vet tomorrow to get the newsletter (volunteers drop it off there after assembly) and load for the cat show on Thursday. So today I need to do the bulk of the week's grocery shopping.

While I'm shopping I need to pick up portable things for set up on Friday and the show on Saturday.

KonaKat

Maryanne--I used to read on the old NS site that often when you felt hungry that it was an indication that the scales would be showing a loss. Personally, I never found that to be true for me but for you, it might be a reality.

Helene--Good luck on the planting as well as the decluttering.

I had the Quaker Weight Control oatmeal for breakfast; that seems to be my rut for easy to fix breakfasts. I leave tomorrow for Branson, so today is being spent getting ready. I'm tired and have no idea why, but hopefully it won't impact the trip as I'm doing the driving.

mdubbs1

Jean - have a FANTASTIC trip!

KonaKat

Maryanne--Thanks! I'm going outside to do some yard work. I need to pick up trimmings from where I "manicured" the bushes.

PamS53

Maryanne, after discussing meatloaf yesterday with you, we had to have it for dinner tonight, lol! It was really good and DH was very happy.

It started raining a couple of hours ago and it looks like we'll have mostly rain for the rest of the week. Our house is on a hill so we aren't worried about flooding, but many areas near us are already dealing with it.

Jean, I hope you have a great time in Branson. One of the shows we particularly enjoyed was The Three Texas Tenors. They appear for the first half of their show as redneck hillbillies, but as soon as they open their mouths you quickly realize that they are classically trained opera singers with many impressive credits. They did a great show which we thoroughly enjoyed. I don't know if they are appearing in Branson now, but if they are, I highly recommend their show.

Helene610

Jean...Have a wonderful time. Maryanne..I've heard that hunger pangs are often a sign you're dehydrated. They suggest drinking water and waiting a bit to see if the hungry feeling goes away. Then eat as usual. Pam..I hope you stay safe with all that rain. The pictures we see on the news are terrible. We had rain yesterday but late this afternoon, the sun came out. The plants we bought Sunday should have dried out enough to plant by tomorrow.

mdubbs1

Helene - what browser are you using to access this site. DH spent two days this weekend futzing with trying to do an order on CVS. He finally asked me to take a look (that NEVER happens LOL!). I played around and finally suggested he try another browser. And voila! Order went through.

I've got a dentist appointment this morning and then need to head to the vet to to pick up the newsletter. They are kind enough to let us use them as a drop off and pick up site for the volunteers who assemble it. Plenty of driving time to help me think about a gnarly issue for a client!

After dinner I think I'll go to the storage unit and load for Friday's cat show set up. I load Bonnie tomorrow and was going to do both at the same time but I think I'm better off doing one today and one tomorrow. I always have to empty out her van before I can load her van and it's a lot of work.

Today I'm going to have oatmeal and raisins for breakfast, protein bar for lunch since I'll be on the road, JC lentils and beef plus vegetables for dinner, and chips and Atkins bar in the evening.

I can tell I'm getting bored with meals so I was poking around the basement to see what else I've got that I haven't had for awhile! Hope to lay out some different meal plans the next week.

I made reservations for Father's Day and have checked in with both brothers to make sure they want to come. We're all of course talking about Dad and how to approach him about moving home. My baby brother had interestingly come to the same conclusions I did about some things. I don't really know him very well. He was six when I left for college and only 10 when I left home for good. He doesn't check email so communication is limited. I guess I need to reach out more.

Helene610

I'm using Google Chrome. I get a lot of pop up ads and messages from companies offering to clean up my computer. I'm still using Windows 7. I don't trust those companies. I think they are the source of the ads and they just want to sell me a clean up tool. Or worse, maybe give me a virus. When I run a scan of my computer, my virus software come up with a clean report. I've tried Explorer and I get the same results. Ugh.

KonaKat

Helene--I use Explorer about all the time. I have the popup block feature selected so I rarely have a popup. I also use AVG from grisoft.com. It has had excellent reviews for years so I have used AVG for a long time.

Maryanne--I know what you mean about getting bored with meals. I hope the family can communicate with your father so that he is comfortable as well as you.

I'm packing the car and ill be picking up the other person after they complete work. We will drive part way and get an early start tomorrow for about a 600 mile day. We hope to get into Branson about 1pm at the latest on Friday.

mdubbs1

Helene - you are definitely right not to trust those companies that popup ads about problems. I was shocked when DH fell for one of them. He later realized what he had done - called the credit card company, called the bank, it was a major PITA for him to protect everything. He's "Mr. Security". No idea what got into him. It scared me a little that he fell for something like that. We may be senior citizens but we aren't yet exactly ancient.

I think a lot of programs only work on Chrome. We discovered ordering on CVS only works on Chrome. So I've got no clue why you're having issues.

Helene610

I think one of those companies that want to "clean" my computer did something that causes the pop ups. Some of them pretend to be from Windows. I think they want to clean out my accounts, not fix my computer. So I keep closing and starting over. sometimes I can sneak and post because it's erratic. I got a nice email from Panera yesterday. I get a free cup of hot or iced coffee every day through the month of June.

PamS53

Helene, have you tried clearing the cache and deleting cookies? Sometimes that helped on my old computer. I mostly use my iPad now and don't have issues with pop ups, but I recall that when I did this on my old computer it was helpful.

mdubbs1

When computers go awry they really go awry! Sounds like you need a real IT guy!

We're all loaded for the cat show tomorrow. It has gotten HOT here so it's going to be hot work hauling everything into the show haul (unless it rains). Hopefully the a/c in the show hall will be turned on.

I got the first two of James Patterson's new "Book Shots" even though Amazon says they aren't released until next Tuesday. His next step in taking over the world. They are paperbacks. About 160 pages. He is hoping to entice people who haven't read in years to buy them and to get them into locations that don't normally sell books. I can easily see them in a magazine rack by the checkout counter. They are sort of the size of Reader's Digest or Prevention magazines.

I'm currently reading the latest Alex Cross by James Patterson. Thanks to those bookbub emails I have SO many free books on my kindle but I don't remember any more what most of them were and they are almost all book 1 of a series so if I start one I risk starting a series. So I decided to pick up something else.

Those bookbub emails have me wondering why there are SO many books about rock stars and billionaires.

I didn't realize that Hallmark had started making the Joanna Fluke Hannah Swensen books into movies starring Allison Sweeney (she's also the executive producer). I checked and we do have the Hallmark movie channel on our cable. And it looks like they might be doing a mini marathon of the first three movies on June 9 with the 4th one coming out shortly June 19. One of her fellow actors from her soap days is playing Mike. I'm not sure who plays Norman.

Helene610

I was watching some of the Good Witch programs on Hallmark while I was in FL. She was married in a Christmas wedding to the local sheriff. I started watching the new season when I got home and she's dating a doctor. Talk about confusing. I Googled it and found that when they continued the series, the actor who played the new husband was in another show. They made Cassie a widow and the pre-teen children are grown and one in high school. Talk about confusing! Once I got past that, I enjoyed the new series. I've seen a few of the Hannah Swensen shows as well and liked them.

I'm at the library picking up books. What a pleasure to post on their computers without all the pop ups I get. My pop up blicker is turned on so it beats me why I'm getting these computer repair ads. I can see why your husband fell for one. Some have a loud alarm warning your computer may be infected and prompting you to call them ASAP. As if I'd fall for that.

mdubbs1

I'm definitely going to check out the Hannah Swensen movies. I like the books except for the last one where Ms. Fluke definitely "jumped the shark" IMHO.

I'm ready for the day. I have food and water packed to go to the cat show. I took my pain pill and have my support socks and set up day shoes ready. We just set up today so it's a lot of heavy labor. I have a helper who is a GREAT help but she's disabled so I have to do all the hauling and heavy lifting. Good exercise I guess! LOL!

Helene610

I changed a setting on my computer from medium to high. I'll have to see if that helps the problem I've been having with the pop ups. Fingers crossed.
Oam..I just picked up the 17 day diet book. I'll read and probably give it a trial run. So far, I like the author's tone when he talks about helping his patients.
Maryanne..Good luck with the cat show.

PamS53

Helene, my sister and niece have both done well with The 17 Day Diet. I think knowing you can add something back in every 17 days helps make it easier to stick to the plan. Once you get to the second and/or third cycles, it isn't really that hard to stick to it and there is a lot of variety in the diet. But you have to be willing and have the time to cook most of the food since there aren't as many prepared items that work that you can buy already prepared. Good luck!

mdubbs1

Well, we got the cat show set up. About 5 hours on my feet on a concrete floor. I wear my special socks and shoes and take my naproxen sodium but it still does a number of me. We had an oddly shaped space. Always fun (not). But it does take a certain amount of creativity to make it work. Really frosts me somethings though that they sell a 10 x 20 space, have you sign a contract, and then proceed to give you whatever space they want to give you.

The vendor across from us was officious as heck. She wanted us to monitor the door to the outside (which she was just as close to) to make sure everyone closed it behind them "to keep the air conditioning in". Which would make some sense if people weren't going in and out and in and out with loads and loads of inventory.

I didn't do so hot on the food last evening. I made the mistake of stopping at the grocery store on the way home while I was hungry. Oh, well, today is a new day.

Today I'm going to take care of all of yesterday's work emails, do some work on a client project, and do chores.

PamS53

We attended a happy hour last night that was a lot of fun. Some of the group have been out of town for various reasons and missed the last couple of events, so it was nice to catch up with them. It was also the first time some of the guests had seen me walking since my accident, so I got a lot of attention for that, lol! Today we will be attending a high school graduation party for the son of one of my good friends from grad school. He graduated 13th in his class of more than 700 students and has a very bright future ahead. He will attend the University of Texas as a biology major, and will probably go on to med school afterward. Admission to UT is extremely competitive, so he and his parents are thrilled for him. His older sister is less thrilled as she is a proud graduate of Texas A & M University, which is UT's biggest in-state rival. That school was his other top pick and he was accepted at both, but in the end I think he chose UT because of their medical school. A &M is noted for their veterinary college, but I don't think they have a medical school so he would have needed to transfer to another school if that is in fact what he chooses after completing his bachelor's degree.

Maryanne, hopefully the woman across the way from your booth will be busy with her own booth and stop trying to police everyone else. Those kinds of people are so annoying.

Helene610

I've just read the first 2 chapters of the diet book. I've yet to read what the diet is actually made up of. How long did you stick with it?
Maryanne..I hope the cat show was a success. Is it on Sunday as well?

mdubbs1

Yes, the cat show is on today as well. Apparently it was slow yesterday. These shows are dying away. There are fewer and fewer and because they don't do well they don't put money into advertising - a vicious cycle. I need to make sure we don't invest a whole lot more money in inventory as I suspect we'll be busy selling what we have (and anything that's donated) before they pretty much disappear completely. And at some point it won't make financial sense to keep the storage unit.

PamS53

Helene, I haven't done this diet. I only know about it from my sister and niece. I did buy a used copy of the book and read about it just to see what they were talking about. I believe my sister and niece have done it a couple of times. During the first cycle on her first try, I believe my sister lost about ten pounds and my niece lost twelve. I'm not sure how they did for the rest of the time they were on it. I know my sister did the second cycle and may have transitioned to the third before she stopped. She tends to be very enthusiastic in the beginning but has difficulty sticking to any diet long term, so this was a pretty good effort for her. She was recently told she is pre-diabetic, so I think she is making more of an effort this time, but we haven't talked about what kind of results she's seeing. My niece originally tried the diet right after she got engaged and wanted to lose a little weight before she started getting serious about a wedding dress, but then the wedding was postponed because they decided to move from LA to NYC. I expect she will do the diet again once they set a date. I think she would still like to lose at least ten pounds before the big day. Since we are all quite vertically challenged in my family, ten pounds lost does make a difference.

mdubbs1

I worked hard enough yesterday that I only woke up twice last night. That's me TIRED! I didn't unload at the storage unit on the way home because it was pouring rain (and I was soaking wet from loading in spite of a rain coat.)

This morning I go for a mammogram and bone density. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll be caught up on everything. On my way home I'll probably stop at the storage unit to unload.

Haven't picked out breakfast yet. Maybe something from the freezer to get me out the door quickest.

Helene610

If waking up twice is a good night for you, you must be exhausted most days. I did something to my wrist last night. I suspect I twisted it while I was sleeping. I woke up with a sharp pain and couldn't really find a comfortable position for my wrist. If it keeps up, I'll be calling the chiropractor for another adjustment. It's less painful than this morning, but not 100%. It almost feels like a sprain but I didn't do anything to account for that.

mdubbs1

Helene - I hope your wrist feels better soon!!

I sleep with cats so it's not atypical for me to wake up a lot but I usually fall back asleep quickly.

I had my two tests done. My hips must be getting worse. The bone density test actually hurt and I don't remember that. The place was super busy but they work pretty efficiently. Some more man near me (I assume waiting for his wife) got pinned down by some other man insisting on describing all his physical issues in enormous detail. The poor guy just kept saying soothing things and, I'm sure, hoping his wife would come out soon!

They had a new computerized sign-in kiosk which even for me wasn't super intuitive. Several women admitted defeat and the front desk people helped but then really disparaged them. I thought that was rude.

Some man came in demanding his wife's test results supposedly for a doctor visit she was having. NO WAY they should have responded but they did. HIPAA privacy be damned I guess.

mdubbs1

I gained a pound last week. I guess the moral to the story is this. Even though the cat shows are a LOT of physical labor. Way more than I do for weeks on end. It isn't enough to justify not counting calories those days. Sort of discouraging actually. When we do the flea market Father's Day weekend I need to remember that!

I got back to the spreadsheet/calories yesterday so hopefully I'm back on track. I have my food planned out for today.

This morning I take Jessicat to the vet. She's having an ultrasound tomorrow. Someone comes in and does it and they send it out to a board certified radiologist. Normally I'd probably have taken her to an internist but unless I go the whole way to Virginia I don't get a radiologist so decided to go with the regular vet's plan. If they turn up something - and maybe even if they don't - we'll probably have to head to the internist with her. I've got her "suitcase" packed (canned food, dry food, medicine) but still have to type her "to do" list.

My one colleague who does what I do is in Peru for the month and all our hospital clients have medical plans that renew 7/1. I had practically nothing to do last month but I'm thinking this month is going to be heck. BUT none of it is actually here to be done yet. I can already feel the anxiety creeping up. I've got SO much scheduled this month - vet appointments, doctor appointments, etc.

For some reason I watch the Bachelorette. Guilty summer pleasure I guess. In my head I know it's not real but I still find myself wondering why the "lead" doesn't ever choose one of the nice guys. Of course I've never been beautiful so I have no clue what it's like to have Richard Gere types drooling over you but heh, if you want forever, don't choose that type.

mdubbs1

I'm back on plan today. Oatmeal/raisins for breakfast, salad/turkey for lunch and one of my favorite NS dinners - mac n cheese and chili, mixed and divided in half - for dinner! So far today, so good!

It's a beautiful day here. I hated to leave Jessicat at the vet but I need to find out if there's anything wrong and if so whether we can do anything about it.