Daily Check In: Are You On Track Today?

DW2022

Hello! Welcome back Shari!! I'm so happy that your trip went well. It sounds so relaxing!! Paula, I hope you had a wonderful Easter! It sounds like it was a busy one! I'm so happy that your Godson has been blessed with a little one!
My weekend was busy and then I figured out last night that I'd forgotten to do the minutes for a dog club meeting that were due to be turned in for the newsletter yesterday. I emailed an apology to the editor and got busy (up way too late) finishing the minutes.
I did break through my previous plateau number (by .2 lbs) and am seeing a lower number in the ten's column. That was encouraging! Have a great Tuesday!!

Paulawilldo

DW, Congrats on breaking his plateau! I knew you could do it. Pulling for your downward trend to continue. Success breeds success! Congrats too on getting your minutes done. Sorry you had to burn the midnight oil to do so.

Shari, I hope you are able to get to stock up on what you need. Costco is a great place to do that.

I had another successful day. I had PT which is going very well and making a noticeable difference in my pain level and my range of motion. I know I have a long way to go, but I am optimistic that I will continue to see progress. Given that we are still celebrating, I consider my eating pretty good. I had a significant to do list today and accomplished most of it without too much fatigue and pain. So, overall quite a good day.

shariletts

Off to the office today. It's a rainy day out there, which is good. We have been so dry and this will help. Can't wait to be able to get the garden in!

I had a rough night last night. I miss Moe! And then I got quite emotional about how close I am to losing my parents. Neither of them have a faith or even believe in God. That is extremely difficult for me. My face is puffy today from the crying and I feel quite exhausted. I need to sort out my emotions and work through them.

Paulawilldo

So sorry about your rough night Shari. I understand the loss of our family pets. They are truly family members. I hope that when and if the time is right for you you will find another dog to love. I think it is normal to have the feelings you have about your parents. You love them and care for them and know what joy faith in Christ can bring. I remember your dad's name (sorry but can't remember your mom's name). I will pray for them to come to a knowledge of the Lord and to find faith in Him. I am sure you are already praying for this.

I had a fairly good day today except that I was kind of tired in the afternoon and in the evening as well. So I rested and slept both times and then felt much better. I did not eat a lot today. I think I am tired of the Easter food already. May 8 is John's "name day," as it is the day our church commemorates St. John the Evangelist, John's patron saint. So I told him to celebrate his name day we can get a meal delivered, his choice of place and foods. Both of us will enjoy that and also will give us a change from all of the Easter food.

shariletts

Thank for the prayers for my parents. My mom's name is Mary. She grew up Greek Orthodox so it's very sad that she no longer believes. She sent me a link to a YouTube series called "Know Thyself." I haven't watched any of the videos, but she wants me to. I think it is New Age stuff and so I am not excited to view them (or even one of them). I will make time just to confirm my suspicions and so I can talk to her about what I think.

Enjoy John's name day and the meal delivery.

Paulawilldo

Shari, Let me know what you discover about the YouTube piece your mother told you about. I am not familiar with it. I will pray for both of your parents to be believers. It is so unfortunate (to say the least) that your mother fell away from the faith she was raised in, a faith I truly love and a faith that provides a full and meaningful spiritual life both now and in the world to come. Do you have any idea why she fell away from the Lord? I am sure it is complicated. It usually is.

Our delivery meals were great with much left over once again. I am still not tracking all of my meals, but I think that my choices would add up to going over my point limit for the day. I had a very good PT session today but didn't need any naps so I felt that was good. Tomorrow will be a long day for me. John and I have our OT sessions (1 hour each, one right after the other). Then we are finally taking Buster to his long overdue vet appointment. I hired a driving service because I couldn't handle Buster going any longer without his shots and check up. It is costing me a fortune for this service, but in the long run I know it is well worth it.

shariletts

Thanks for the interest about my parents. I am not 100% sure why my mom walked away. It happened long before I was old enough to have faith conversations. I do know when I was in grade 12, she had a breast cancer scare and I shared the gospel message with her. She seemed to have believed, but once she had a clean bill of health, her faith didn't stick. I hope to have more conversations with her once I check out the YouTube videos.

I hope your day goes alright Paula. That is a lot of physical activity but totally understand that is for such a good reason. Let's hope the OT will get you back to driving. That would be so helpful. Even if it doesn't, it is helping so much.

I get to work from home today and I am thankful about that. It's sunny so I plan to take my coffee breaks on the deck.

Paulawilldo

Discussing the videos with your mom sounds like a good place to start a discussion. I know you will do so with love, the only way to go in such situations.

It was a demanding day for me but overall I did ok. My OT session was quite challenging but again I worked through it pretty well. Buster's visit to the vet went well. We will get his lab results probably tomorrow but the physical exam was all good. It was sweet and cute that our vet came out to the car to see us rather than just call my cell after the exam. (I haven't been able to walk in with Buster for most of his visits to this vet.) Dr. B. said he came because he missed seeing John and me and wanted to see us in person. I think however that he came simple to tease us about arriving with Buster in a Limo Town car. He said, "What....did you win a lottery?" I suspect we are the first clients to arrive at his office with a dog in a limo. We all enjoyed seeing each other. It was a bit of a struggle for me to get into the Town car. I did better getting out when we got home. I rested after our supper (leftovers from yesterday) so that helped quite a bit to get me somewhat back to (my) normal.

shariletts

Arriving in a limo to the vet would stand out Paula! Glad your day went well.

I had a bit of a rough patch in my day. DH and I still struggle with our differing views on our relationship with his parents. We have counselling today which will be good, but it's always exhausting at the same time. His mom always gets me a basket of flowers for Mother's Day and I wish I would have reached out to her tell her myself that this year, that wouldn't be helpful due to the strain in our relationship. They arrived on Monday but DH didn't tell me, but put them right by the garage door. I didn't bring them up until yesterday. It is so very strange to me that she drops off the flowers for me every year, but she has never purchased any type of gift for her son on Father's day (and they are in a relationship whereas I have told her that I am not in a place to work on ours). The hardest part for me is that I will need to thank her for the flowers and I was hoping to have a period of time of no connection. I do so much better when we don't see each other too often. Thanks for listening! I know I need to get this sorted, and I am in counselling, so we shall see how things progress.

Paulawilldo

Shari, I hope your counseling session helped with the difficult situation with your MIL. We are always here to listen to each other. It sure can be stressful for you and your DH with little progress coming from the in-laws side of the issues.

I had a little less energy today, probably from my busy day yesterday. I had an hour of OT today however and did very well. The occupational therapist is such a sweet young lady (age 26, getting married in August). She is impressed with the progress John and I are making. We are impressed with our progress and with how good she is as well. She is very personable and said today how much she likes coming to work with us. My eating is still far from where it was when I was losing weight, albeit slowly. I am working on making better choices and will jump back on my regular tracking plan on Monday.

shariletts

Our counselling session went well. I typically feel a bit more of her focus than DH does, but yesterday the focus way more on him. We are making steps to finding a new normal, but like weight loss, it isn't easy, there are gains and losses and it takes effort.

I was hoping to spend time outside gardening, but the air quality is bad as smoke has rolled in overnight. I read the air quality statement and changed my plans to simply wear a mask while outdoors. I didn't realize there are a variety of gases in the air too and a mask won't stop them. So I will be focusing on things inside today.

What kind of things are you working on with your OT Paula? It's so good that you are seeing progress, that makes it easier to keep working at it.

Paulawilldo

Shari, You can include OT and PT along with counseling and weight loss in not being easy, requiring effort, and seeing gains and losses! We are all in this together with some similar needs and some different too. Glad your recent session was positive.
I am working on improving strength, endurance, balance, and range of motion through both OT and PT. We are focusing especially on my shoulders, wrists, and knees. OT and PT overlap a bit. The therapists work me hard but not to the point of too much pain. I also have exercises to do when the therapists are not here. I fit some exercises in but am often too tired to do too much. It amazes me that both John and I are seeing such significant improvements after only 3 weeks into our therapies. The improvement in my shoulder pain and range of movement is most impressive to me but I also see improvement in all areas, as does John.
I had a good eating day today though I was fairly tired today, so eating was not a top priority. We still have Pascha food left over. We were planning on a delivery tomorrow for Mother's Day but I am rethinking this because we have so much food here. I think maybe holding off on a delivery till sometime during the week will make more sense.

Happy Mother's Day to all of us!!1

shariletts

Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you for sharing about your therapies. That is so good that you are gaining strength and range of motion. Those are so important to the aging process and quality of life.

I have heard from all of my children today. That is special. I am going to go see my mom later this afternoon. I made her a loaf of sourdough bread. It will be the second one that I give her and it is so much better than the last one I made for her.

Still super smokey here so I am not sure if we will be able to spend much time outside. It would be nice if we could.

DW2022

Hello! Happy Mother’s Day!! I’m glad you are both doing well in spite of some ups and downs! I’ve been doing ok, holding steady at just below my plateau weight. I’ve been at a local Scentwork Trial yesterday and today. Yesterday I went over 16,000 steps. Today I’ve done 13000. I am sore from the waist down-everything hurts!! My girl was entered both days and did terribly yesterday but awesome today! That’s all I’ve done this weekend. The rest of the week went ok -just busy with work. Have a great week! May seems to be flying by!!

Paulawilldo

DW, I am amazed at the number of steps you walked. That has to add up to burning significant calories. Congrats!

Sounds like a nice Mother's Day for you Shari, hearing from your kids and time with your mom as well. I have heard that sourdough bread is a healthy bread to eat. I think it tastes great too.

I enjoyed my Mother's Day. John and I had Chinese food delivered from an upscale local grocery store along with a few groceries we needed. The Chinese food is freshly prepared in the restaurant section of the grocery store and was very good. I have been craving Chinese food off and on lately so this was a good treat for Mother's Day. I read and rested and enjoyed my time with John.

shariletts

DW- That's an impressive amount of steps! Keep that up and I am sure you won't have to worry about being sore. You will be so fit.

Paula-I enjoy Chinese food too. Glad you could celebrate being a mom over an enjoyable meal.

I didn't have much of an appetite yesterday and didn't eat well. Hoping to be back on track today! It's never good to over eat or under eat.

I am starting an online course today for the software management system that we use at work. I do enjoy using it and doing some configuration. I just hope it's not too overwhelming or exhausting. I will need to be focused 8 hours a day (well 7, I think we get an hour for lunch and I typically only get a half hour). I am the only one taking the course and will be the "expert."

Paulawilldo

Wishing you good luck with your online course Shari. I am sure that would be very far over my head! i admire you being able to take on such a project, and I am sure you will do well.
Today was a memorable day for me.....I was able to get into the van for the first time since March 11! My physical therapist was here and asked me if I wanted to try it again since I have been making such good progress. We did it at the end of my therapy session, before she moved on to working with John. So with her, I walked using the walker to the garage and then with the help of a cane I was able to get into the van. It wasn't easy, but I did it. So happy about that. I am thinking that maybe I will try again on Tuesday when the OT is here.
I did well with my eating today too. After supper I rested (slept) in our family room for a while. I think I was drained from the PT and getting into the van, but it is well worth it. I am already feeling like I am getting some of my freedom back. I will continue to keep working to make more progress.

shariletts

I enjoyed the first day of classes so much! I knew a lot of it already, but I learned some new things and the day went by pretty quickly.

Paula- That is such good news that you were able to get into the van!!!! Let's hope that it keeps getting easier. Having your own way around in a vehicle will be such a blessing for you and John.

I had a good day of eating yesterday. I know I didn't eat enough fruit/veg, but I didn't snack on processed foods and that is a win. Having this whole week at home will be helpful for me to curb snacking.

Paulawilldo

Shari, I am happy that you are enjoying your class and a bonus is that the day went by quickly for you.

I have gotten lax in terms of my eating with fruits and veggies lately. I do so much better when I increase in both areas. I hope to make a serious effort with this. I still have some sweet cravings and usually fruit satisfies that to some degree. I hope that now that I am gaining strength (and energy eventually I hope), I will take more time with meal planning and prep.

shariletts

Day two of my class was good too. Our staff are away at an overnight retreat that I would have been on, I am very thankful to have missed it. I have been on so many, and don't typically enjoy them, at least not the evenings when nothing is planned.

I am like you Paula. I don't eat enough fruit and veggies. I am trying though. They make a big difference when we get enough of them rather than going for the cookies and chips.