Weigh In 8/24 - 8/30

GaGasheesh

LW: 133.0
TW: 133.4

Ugh. It could be party because of salt from Mexican Food last night, but I'm really getting sick of the scale going up! Gotta do something better. That's 13 pounds heavier than my desired weight. Oh boy.

Sarah, your job news is mind blowing and so unfair. I'm shocked and disappointed that this is how these contractors for government agencies work. I've found that all too often companies do these dirty tricks to push out the workers who are the best, have the most experience, and have worked up into higher pay after years of dedication. It's not uncommon to force early retirement or be pushed onto lower salaries, fewer accounts for commissioned salespeople, or part time employment devoid of company insurance coverage. It's so wrong. I'll be thinking of you and hoping that you'll get a satisfactory resolution. Personally, I hope you can just retire. When I retired I worried that I would be bored but, honestly, I haven't been bored. Only very recently with Covid have I had a few days where I thought "ugh, this is getting so old!"

This has not been my best week for workouts or intake. I did better today on both counts, however, getting cardio and a quick strength training routine. I've been thinking about how we might all begin getting better results. What would you think about a commitment to reduce our weight by .2 pounds per week? My scale is digital and shows only .0, .2, .4, .6 . . etc. So, my goal for next Wednesday (good grief . . that's September 2nd ) would be 133.2. I think I can do that pretty easily, but I know the going gets tougher as my weight goes down.

Lois, hope to see you post soon. I know you're under pressure too. . so, let me know what you two think about that kind of a push. It's a pretty gentle push, but I think doable is the most important to me right now.

Lastchancelj

LW 232.3
TW 230.6

Ok. Down 1.7 - I dunno why. Honestly. Could it have been the 4 oz of wine I had Mon/Tues eves? I dunno. That's the only thing I did differently. Anyhow, I'll take it.

So, yesterday, I ran out to get my beard gone (wax my chin), head to starbucks for my drink and breakfast sandwich. Get home, drop my keys as I exit my car and bam, I've triggered one of my worst vertigo events in awhile!!! I made it into the house (unsure how I carried my drinks in), found my way to the bathroom as I was ready to throw up at each step. Texted hubby (and my boss - somehow switched to her instead of hubby) got hubby to get me both the vertigo med as well as the nausea stuff (I really need to learn the generic name for zofran, because he has no clue). Had Siri call the therapy center and they can squeeze me in at 9, which is about 30 mins. later. We get there and it's a weird session as not too much movement/vertigo action in the first position (which is always the worst) - but it actually got doubly worse in 2nd position (it's usually close to the first position, but not quite there - where as this round it was noticeably worse). So the therapist wants to try the other side (usually it's my left that is the trigger side), - there are five positions to the process - but it just made it worse again, so we don't go full through and start back to the other side and again worse in 2nd position. We're done. I get home and climb into bed for the day. I headed down just before I thought hubby was leaving for work, turns out he had to leave earlier so I was frustrated as I couldn't make myself anything to eat. So I asked MIL to make me a pb sandwich. I couldn't handle making it myself!! As I head back up, MIL's offering me her shoulder to hold onto as I make my way to the stairs....God love her, but she's so unstable herself, that would have triggered my visuals beyond capability. I made it back up and took another vertigo tablet. Ended up in the office recliner we have in my son's room and there I stayed until hubby got home. He moved it to our room and I stayed there until after 1am when I woke up again. Today I feel better, but guarded - not moving my head much. Alerted therapy I may not make it in today. Feeling better and sometimes when I feel this way, the procedure can actually set me back in recovery. I have an apt set up for tomorrow as well just in case it gets worse and I don't have to suffer the weekend. That's why I didn't post yesterday

Sarah - my heart goes out to you on your contract. I agree with Sheesh - especially new contractors that don't appreciate all of the knowledge, expertise and dedication you exhibit. I will keep you in my prayers it all works out. I'm a praying kind of gal these days...

Sheesh - It could be the salt, or retention from exercising as well. I know that I would swell the day after a hard workout with Chrissy - and I like the goal setting. I am doing better about thinking about eating healthier.

SarahMaxx

LW: 141.2
TW: 140.6

Sorry to be late. Yesterday totally got away from me. I'm glad to see a decrease, but still don't feel convinced I'm making any progress because one day this week, I was almost 143. And then, believe it or not, one day this week I saw 139.8. That was such a surprise I figured my scale had to be wonky, and I got a calibration weight from hubby to check it. And it is fine.

Thank you both for your thoughts and prayers. I went from shock to anger to fear and then to something like relief. Today I finally told some of the staff I work with in the Policy part of our program, and I received an email in my personal inbox that said "This ain't over. The fight for you has been taken to the Office of the Director. You have some strong advocates here." And when I saw that, I almost thought--oh, no. I don't want to continue sitting at this desk 50 hours a week! Go figure. I'm all over the map with this.

So I'm finally piecing together some financial information from old companies that I have just not tracked like I should have. And I know we can pay the bills even if I'm not working. But since we both worked for companies through the years that didn't have 401K's and we inherited nothing to speak of, my fear is what happens as the years go on and our health declines, or what happens if we have out-of-the-ordinary expenses. Right now, hubby has some health issues, but I'm in good shape. One thing that made me happy was the dentist took my BP last week and it was 121/71. She asked if I take BP medicine, and when I said no, she said that I am very fortunate and unusual. (We all knew that last part anyway! LOL)

But mentioning health, OMG, Lois. I am sorry to hear that the vertigo is acting up. I remember some of the times in the past. I do hope that this passes quickly and that you have a long, long reprieve.

Sheesh, I'm open to trying for .2 each week, but I'm also open to something besides weight that would be a positive. I need to think about what that could be. I think 133 is a great weight for someone our height and age, and if you can maintain something around that, you will stay my role model. But I know that where you feel well and are happy is your decision. I'm aiming for 130 rather than the 122 that was my BodyBugg goal 10 years ago.

Lastchancelj

What about some type of daily "healthy snack goal"? I don't know how to measure, but something along those lines.

SarahMaxx

Well, it has been a couple of interesting days. It seems that my Policy people put up a good fight to no avail. I am hearing different things about my Branch Chief and team lead. They tell me they've also done everything they can, but a couple of former coworkers said that the leadership in my branch have long hatched a plan to replace us senior contractors. And they reminded me that typically when a company wins a contract for the first time with a program, they will do pretty much anything their new client wants, if they truly insist. And I have to admit that I have seen some people in my program treated very unfairly through the years.

Oddly, I'm not letting my gut get all twisted up about this, though. I had long ride. I almost said a long, good ride--but then I remembered all those nights and weekends that I worked with no extra pay because that's what professionals do. But even that I can live with because the net effect was helping the public. And I have had several people outside my program reach out to me to ask for my resume. My question now will be do I want to work and what type of work and under what circumstances would it be right for me.

So now I can hopefully enjoy some extra pool time at the end of the summer and the enjoy nice fall days that are coming. And maybe I'll finally get the HIGH part of my range down in the 130s.

Lois, I hope that the dizziness and nausea are gone. Sheesh, while we decide whether to include another goal and what that can be, I'll commit to doing my best to weigh 140.4 next Wednesday.

SarahMaxx

This has been an odd kind of day. We are getting rain from the remnants of Hurricane Laura as she moves up the country and back out to shore. We went to the farmers' market in the rain and then ran a few errands. I have spent the afternoon cleaning out email and online files. I tried to archive some folders that I didn't want to leave readily accessible because--hey, I'm human--and I didn't want to make this too easy for them. But they've set things up so it's impossible to make files into PST files in outlook if it's a shared inbox, and of course, because I have to have back-up my five inquiry inboxes are shared. Oh well. I also talked to a former coworker who had a similar thing done to her in late June. I'm beginning to smell some rats! Oddly, I'm mildly pissed but not that angry--yet.

Because of the weather, I haven't been able to walk today. Hubby has struggled this afternoon with a bad bout of IBS, so if it stops raining and isn't too muggy, I'll probably do the cul-de-sacs later on. Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Lastchancelj

Sarah - you're still in my prayers that all works out for you.

We don't have Hurricane Laura over here but we are in our monsoon still. We arranged to take care of Rhea for the kids on Saturday so we drove to/from their house to pick her up and bring her back. On the way back we had pretty severe winds, thunder and rain!! We live about 45 mins from the kids and I'll tell ya, it was pretty gnarly during a stretch. Hubby usually nods off on the drive, but I kept waking him up needing his eyes. It hit our house about 1030pm...I don't know why but we usually get the worst of the storms between 10 and midnight. And remember - I HATE Thunder and Lightening!

As usual we had a fantastic time with the little one. And we were exhausted. Yesterday I was tired and wanted to sleep in (which is becoming a norm for Sundays - it seems to be the only day of the week I can sleep until 8 or 9), but I was hungry so I got up and fixed breakfast and went back to bed to lie down. I slept another 2 hours and woke up feeling better, but just no drive to do anything - at. all. I made ribs for dinner and then had a hissy fit because when dinner was ready, MIL wanted to eat the leftover chicken and hubby wasn't hungry. I'm glad I asked them on Friday night if they wanted ribs on Sunday and they both said yes (it takes extra time to make and I would rather not have made them if they didn't want them). So I ate, finished the sweet potatoes and then left the remaining mess for hubby and MIL to clean up. I was done. I watched a couple of shows upstairs on Netflix before climbing into bed.

Oh and yesterday's weigh in was 229.8 - so I dropped, ever so briefly, below 230 for the first time in months... I'm back up today, but it felt good yesterday morning!

We're doing mock interviews today for the company gig on Wednesday - oh yay - can't wait. I tried to read the application again, but at this point, I don't know if anything else will stick in my brain. I'll see how I do today.

SarahMaxx

Prayers, good vibes, whatever folks want to send my way are always welcome. I stepped on the scale this morning and to my horror, I was up a couple pounds almost. I am hoping this is fluid from the wonderful tuna panzanella hubby made last night. It has capers and other salty things in it, but boy was it good. We also had fresh peaches going to waste, so after I got my computers to FedEx, I made homemade shortcakes. We had a zoom visit with friends last night, and the rain continues, so my steps were not so good. Around 6000 I think. Sheesh, this may not be a week for me to weigh in at .2 less. But with less desk time (I'm working on my resume and doing some personal business stuff that went begging while I was working those long hours) I should be able to live a little healthier in coming weeks.

Today is hubby's birthday, so intake is going to be tough, though. And it's the day before weight-in! He wants me order and pick up dinner from the nearby Firebirds Steak House, and he wants a "nothing bundt cake" birthday cake! We've only ordered once from Firebirds and my meal was great, his was good but not great. He tried mine and that is what he wants today. So the birthday boy will be calling the shots. I'll try to make okay choices and I'll try to get on the TM. Yep, it's still raining.

I feel your frustration about the ribs, Lois, and I'm glad you left the cleanup to others and got some rest. As time goes on I've discovered that I can push the pedal to the metal IF I can have one day a week where I get extra sleep and extra down time. Otherwise, I struggle. And I know you want to be feeling sharp on Wednesday.

Sheesh, how are your kids on the west coast doing? One of the friends on our zoom last night has family in CA that had to evacuate for 2 days. They live in or near SF, I think, because that's where he grew up. I have been thinking of your kids and grandkids and hope all is well with them.

Well, I'm going to enter the nutrition info from that tuna dinner (the recipe came from Fine Cooking which gives nutrition info, thank goodness) and then I think we're out to run errands. During the day! Fancy that!

Lastchancelj

Sarah - Wish your hubby a Happy Birthday from us in AZ! Enjoy your dinner! I love the Firebirds by us, I hadn't thought of ordering take out from them...somewhere to add to our list. I'm on my 3rd day of ribs and I'm kind of DONE. So, silly question possibly but if you shipped your computers back via FedEx, does that mean you're out of Contract? I thought your contract renews in October...I'm still praying for you.

The monsoon is here...nightly rain, thunder and lightning and 60% humidity during the day.

SarahMaxx

Lois, in federal contracting companies bid and win a contract usually for 2-3 years. The professional services contracts with my client are awarded to minority owned small businesses. Typically, the new company just picks up the staff currently performing the work. I think this time, a company won the contract because it submitted an extremely low bid and then was not able to retain the highest paid people. My contract was a small one with only 9 professional services staff on it. Of the 9 of us, the three oldest and highest paid were not picked up. The new contract started September 1, so my last day was August 31st. I had vacation I was going to lose, so I just worked a few hours during the week after I was told six days before that that I was not going to be picked up by the new company. I think my client did what they could during those six days, but the government client cannot force a contractor to hire a particular person. In the past, it was understood that a new company would ask the client which staff they considered key for them to hire, but I understand this company did not do that. So today was my first day as an unemployed person. First time I've been unemployed since 1986. I'm not sure now what I'm going to do, but I'm getting lots of calls from throughout CDC asking for my resume. To be honest, I don't want to go back to 50 hour high stress weeks. I am hoping to find something part-time or perhaps a series of temporary full-time with breaks in between. Mama is tired!

Thanks for the birthday wishes for hubby. I'll pass them on. I am terrified now to get on the scale tomorrow after that birthday dinner and the shortcakes on Monday night!

I tried to walk outside tonight but we're still getting drizzly rain, and so two loops of one cul-de-sac and I was getting too wet. I love thunder in the distance, but it sounds like you get more than that during the monsoons. I remember that picture you posted a few years ago of the heavy rain.

I will be sending you good thoughts for your presentation tomorrow. Break a leg, my friend!