bmeadows380 wrote: »

just a random thought that has absolutely nothing to do with weight loss:

I'm eating a pork chop for dinner and have a cat that loves pork and is begging for pieces of it. I commented to him that if he were in the wild, he wouldn't be eating pig. Then I got to thinking: cat food always comes in turkey, chicken, beef, salmon, tuna, shellfish. I've seen rabbit, I think, in the petstores, and maybe duck. But a housecat would never be able to prey on any of those things (aside from the rabbit, if it was a small one) in the wild if it were a feral cat. Feral cats prey on mice, chipmunks, squirrels, snakes, small birds........so why do we never see mouse flavored cat food?

Feral cats probably eat more beef, pork and chicken than you think because they find it in the trash.

But the answer to the mouse question is probably because we don't eat mice and pet food is often made from the scraps and parts we don't eat.

my friend talked me into doing My Living DNA a year or so ago since we both like to dabble in family history and find that sort of thing interesting. I had also done 23 and Me as well. My Living DNA had me pegged as 67% British Isles (and over 50% was pure British) and the rest of me was germanic.

I got a notice today that they had refined the results and had updated my profile, so I go in and check and am quite amused by the results: I"m now 81.3% Great Britain and Ireland (only 9% Irish; 24% south-central England and 15% south-east England); the rest is nearly 12% south Germanic (what they call southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland), and the rest northern Germanic (northern Germany & southern Denmark). Does that make me more English than some people living in England today? lol (and it's also amusing that I live in southern WV and have ties to the south here in America; apparently my family line likes being in the south since they also lived in South Germany and Southern England.....:) )

While my friend had big surprises in her lineage, mine only confirms what I already suspected and even reinforces it. The family tree I found for my family dated back to 1200 and was all English with very little influx of other people groups; my DNA results just provides support for the lady's research.

It also gives credence to my theory as to who my mother's grandmother's real father was. We knew that she had been born out of wedlock, but for years, my mother and grandmother had thought her real father had been of one particular family until I happened to find a copy of her marriage certificate and saw that her mother had listed a man named Schwarz as the father (which blew my grandmother away). I told my mother that is a German name, but considering this was around the end of WWI, I could see why my great-great grandmother might not have wanted to own up to it. Seeing that I have such a strong representation of German in my DNA makes me think I'm on the right trail when it comes to Mr. Schwarz, though I can't find anything else out about him.

Anywho, I find all this fascinating - the family dirt can be especially fun to dig up! lol

@theleadmare Well, it could be worse, I suppose- there are some really horrible creeps in the history of humanity!

I figure it doesn't really matter who's in my past or what they did; they're answerable for their deeds good or bad and I'm answerable for mine - though knowing their deeds makes for fascinating dinner conversations!

maiomaio71 wrote: »

We bought my parents (English by birth) an ancestry DNA kit for their Christmas present. It will be interesting to see the results. My children's would also be interesting given that my husband is African...his father's ancestors were driven north by Shaka Zulu but his mother believes her family originally came from West Africa not South. All from oral history so no way of knowing. None of them have any birth certificates, not even my husband. Given the height of my boys, there's definitely a throwback there to a different tribe from their Dad's which is small and thin!

DNA testing can be fascinating for sure! Sometimes the family oral history lines up with the genetic results, but sometimes there's surprises! And then there's the way the genetic lottery works, when one siblings gets one set of DNA for one ancestry but their other sibling doesn't get any of it. That's what happened with my best friend. The family history says that her grandmother was full blooded Cherokee but had been adopted way back in the early 1900's, when adoptions were all sealed. The paperwork is long gone as far as my friend knows. She did a couple of these ancestry things as well as one of her brothers and several cousins. When comparing the DNA results, she didn't show any native American at all, but her brother and some of her cousins did. However, the results weren't showing up as being Cherokee native American.

Meanwhile, records attested that her family had come from Scotland early on (backed the wrong side in the Jacobite rebellion). However, her DNA results showed a strong Scandinavian component. The Scottish was there, but was overshadowed by a strong northern Germanic component. So apparently, her family had been in Scotland as records show, but they had actually come from somewhere else, and apparently it was from Scandinavia. Of course that makes sense when one looks at history and sees how often the vikings raided and even settled in the British Isles.

But she was still very surprised by the Scandinavian component. Then she started looking at the native peoples in northern Scandinavia and realized that many had also immigrated to American and to the location where her grandmother was said to have been born, which has her now wondering if the family oral history that her grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee was wrong; she wonders if her grandmother was part Sami, especially when you compare the few photos she has of the woman to the typical facial structures of the two people groups.

So while my results just confirmed what the family oral history and paper history indicated, her results turned the family oral history on its head! People groups have moved around so much during history that it can be quite interesting what pops up in a DNA record.

this might be TMI if you think it through to the end......

I was wondering if taking miralax increases your water weight gain? I mean, the purpose of the stuff is to draw water in. I needed to start taking it this past weekend and usually when I do, I'll need to keep it in my routine for several days to get everything ironed back out again. While I know I was over this weekend, I did not go over maintenance at any time, and yet my weight was up 4 lbs on Monday morning. I know that is water weight, but was trying to figure out what had triggered me to be retaining water, other than mom's lasagna. Then, as I was preparing my morning coffee, I saw my miralax bottle and it got me to wondering if perhaps that is part of the reason for the water weight jump.

bmeadows380 wrote: »

this might be TMI if you think it through to the end......

I was wondering if taking miralax increases your water weight gain? I mean, the purpose of the stuff is to draw water in. I needed to start taking it this past weekend and usually when I do, I'll need to keep it in my routine for several days to get everything ironed back out again. While I know I was over this weekend, I did not go over maintenance at any time, and yet my weight was up 4 lbs on Monday morning. I know that is water weight, but was trying to figure out what had triggered me to be retaining water, other than mom's lasagna. Then, as I was preparing my morning coffee, I saw my miralax bottle and it got me to wondering if perhaps that is part of the reason for the water weight jump.

Could be. I jumped 7 pounds after a prescription level "clean out" during a nearly 2 day liquid diet. The nurse was really shocked though so it must not happen often. I am just lucky that way.

bmeadows380 wrote: »

completely unrelated to weight loss disclaimer....

Ever find yourself becoming emotional attached to a inanimate object? I've had this 2006 Honda CRV for almost 8 years now. The car has 193,000 miles on it. It needs a new starter, a new thermostat, most likely a water pump, has a faint antifreeze smell outside but no signs of leaks, but the other day, I noticed an oily sheen on the inside of the windshield near the heating vents, which indicates a possible problem with the heater core, which is NOT a cheap fix. Plus it needs tires.

So despite having been a really good car, age and mileage are catching up to it and it needs a lot of work. It's not my only vehicle - I have a truck that I've been using for the last 3 years, so this is more of an extra vehicle. But I had to make a decision on whether or not to sink money into the thing to fix it up. It's 193,000 miles and the car is 14 years old. Is it really worth putting the money into it to get it back running right? Especially since I already know from previous experience that a heater core is a major expense.

I like having 2 vehicles, and I'm about to pay my truck off, but I really don't want a car payment right now. The bluebook value of my care in fair condition is about $2000, but with all the problems it has, I doubt I could sell it outright for $1,000.

So, instead, I chose to donate it. Made the call today and the organization will make arrangements next week to pick it up. They take the car, no matter its shape, sell it at auction, keep the proceeds for their organization, and I get a receipt for the final price that is fully tax deductible.

I know it needs to be done, but I'm attached to the darn thing and feel like I"m betraying her! lol I had the same problem giving up the Subaru Legacy I had before this car - but the head gasket had blown a 2nd time in 6 months after the heater core in it went out on me and dumped the antifreeze in the passenger seat floor (hence my experience with heater core failure). I nearly cried when I had to leave it at the dealership.

Thought at least this way, I don't have to see someone driving it around and beating it up and mistreating it.....

I tend to be loyal to any possession that lasts for several years. I don't get too emotional but I do feel a sense of loss when I am forced to move on. It is not even always big things like vehicles. I have had the same pair of sunglasses for 20 years and while they are not my primary ones anymore I still use them in situations where the scratches do not bother me too much. I would not have gotten rid of my wallet but it had gotten so loose my cards were falling out of it. I still haven't replaced it with one I like as well. On occasion I smoke a (tobacco) pipe and even though it had been ruined for 10 years I kept the first pipe I ever purchased until just recently. I didn't just keep it I kept cleaning it and shining it. It was on display with the rest.

My Mom is the same way. Her car was 17 years old and falling apart, we had to practically pry the keys out of her hand to get rid of it. It just wasn't reliable anymore. I think she still harbors a grudge that I made her get a new one.

I got myself a pair of Xpand shoe laces. Of all the mundane activities that I cherish being able to do now bending down to tie my shoes is still not one of them. I can't bring myself to buy anymore velcro shoes so this is a good compromise. I will still have to tie my other shoes but the ones I use at the gym and walking are now easier to get on and off.

I don't know if this is happening to anyone else, but my interest in continuing my weight loss and counting calories has really sharpened as we've restricted our activities due to the pandemic. I don't know whether it's a control thing (I have to control something I CAN control, since there's so much I can't) or whether it's a desire to prove that No. Matter. What. Happens. I'm losing this weight this year! I miss the gym a lot, but I also haven't outgrown my hand weights at home, and I still can't plank as long as I'd like, so there's goals to reach here in exercise.

It definitely helps that I have a couple months under my belt and know that even if I'm hungry a certain portion really will satisfy, or that the desire to eat is really a desire to have some water and go to bed cause I'm tired. I'm trying to channel the anxiety I feel about the pandemic into organizing/cleaning/packing.