Missy's Quick Trip Home

She and Hubs left about an hour ago to return her to college, but we got a short but very sweet visit with her. I sure do love my girl! Hubs went yesterday around lunchtime to get her and she had a doctor's appointment here late in the afternoon. She brought her dirty laundry home to do and we spent time chatting and catching up while she washed, dried and folded. Then we all went out to eat Mexican food at our favorite little place in the next town south across the Hartman Bridge. We enjoyed Margaritas (I like mine on the rocks with a sugar rim), the it was pig-out time. Missy was in an enchilada mood, Hubs got their sampler plate (one of almost everything!), and I opted for beef fajitas for one. The dinners were fabulous. No one complained (and that is a rarity, lol). Although our stomachs were stretched at this point, we ordered sopapillas and coffee. Hmm, I must be spoiled by our homemade brew and eats, but I've had better on both counts. Still, it filled that tiny little hole that was crying for sugar carbs (oh, why not just a total on slot of carbs), and we left happy, even though we were literally having a bit of trouble walking, LOL. Missy said it was the fullest she'd been since she left for school (I suspected as much).

Once back home, I forced everyone to assist in getting this photo, although I shouldn't have bothered Hubs. It's kinda fuzzy, out of focus. That's his specialty, unfortunately.
You need Dramamine to watch videos he's taken, seriously. Even sadder, the camera was on the tripod when he snapped it. Next time I will use the camera's timer. At any rate, I'm grateful for the photo. Can you see how wiped out we were? Note to self: next time, use the timer and take the photos prior to any carb-feasts....

That photo shows my new hairdo. Last week, I decided it was too long. I wanted it off my neck, so I chopped it off myself with the aid of the bathroom mirrors (they are wall cabinet door fronts and when you open the doors, you get all angles). I figured I'd screw it up and then I'd have to go get a haircut, but I actually did a great job, even in the back! Not that I want to cut it regularly, though. Once in a blue moon is enough for me. I really appreciated Missy being home though. She always flat-irons my hair before we go out, and I've been missing her. I got a welcome ironing yesterday, LOL, so I wanted to record the new look.

I had planned to compile my steps since I began and bring my weekly averages up to date. I think I only blogged about the first week's numbers and gosh, I think I'm on Week 5 or 6 by now. I will try and get time to do that for next post. Except for yesterday's dinner, I've actually been a good girl, still working to whittle back off that 5-pound gain. This morning I totally expected to have gained even more, but wonder of wonders I have lost another half a pound from Wednesday!

I hate to say this and jinx it but my BadKarmaFest just might be over. Gosh, I hope so!

Last week I fixed my version of chicken spaghetti, and we had some leftovers of it, so Missy had a small bowl of it before she left today, and she loved it. We all do. And it's even yummier eaten as leftovers. So, I'm gonna attempt to record the recipe here, even though I don't have it written down anywhere. I will bold the ingredients for you, but be forewarned: none of them really have a set amount. This is about mixing ingredients to get a consistency you like, and also to cook like you usually do to get the tastes you like.

The secret to this is leftover cooked chicken, and Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup, with the noodles strained out (I don't use them in the dish, so trash or snack on 'em, your choice, lol). Okay, you shred or cut your de-boned cooked chicken into bite-sized pieces and put aside. Then, you pour the soup broth in a pasta-boiling-sized pot, along with enough water to boil your noodles/pasta/spaghetti in, then set to boiling and then cook your noodles. While that's cooking, you need to chop up some celery and onion, saute them in a pan with olive oil and butter, then add some garlic powder and the chicken. Cover and heat through on low. When the noodles are done, you want to drain them, keeping 1 and 1/2 cups of the broth water. (I set a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup in the sink, hold a strainer/colander over it and then pour my noodles and liquid in the colander. Aim also for the pyrex and it will fill up). Then, take your empty noodle pot and combine the noodles and the chicken mixture, and mix together in the pot real good with a can of cream of mushroom soup and a small drained can of sliced mushrooms. Do this on the stove on a low burner. Mix thoroughly while slowly working in some saved broth water, the exact amount depends on the amounts of chicken and noodles you have used. You are seeking a good consistency, creamy but also a bit watery (you will see why in a minute). When you have that mixed to your liking, get a pyrex casserole dish big enough for your mixture and line the bottom with restaurant-style tortilla chips. Then layer on all the mixture. Then layer on a generous topping of grated cheese. Bake covered in a preheated 350F oven for 20-30 minutes or until heated through and bubling. Take the cover off and cook 10 minutes or so more. This stuff is delicious and goes well with garlic bread or even cornbread. The chips get super soggy as they soak up the extra water, and give it a wonderful flavor twist, a lot like King Ranch Chicken. And there is alot of salt in the soups and the chips, so I would wait to salt and pepper it at the table.

If It's Thursday, It Must Be Humberto

Okay, I've officially gotten my 2 blogs flipped-flopped. You will be forced to read both of them if you do not already do that. LOL Why? I just blogged today about my personal life on my scrap blog. Bad Aimes! I'm so lazy that I'm leaving it that way, so there's a link. It's about Humberto hitting here.

I'm back on my healthy eating and walking now, and I've taken off 1.25 pounds of that 5 I gained (so I've already lost 1/4 of the gain). That was as of yesterday (Wed.) morning. I realized I'd also quit drinking my water amount last week, so I've been correcting that. Plus I've been making sure I eat at least one apple a day. Actually, I have a small hit list of daily must-eats: water, green tea, yogurt, fruit, protein. I really ought to add to that, so when I get some time and motivation (LOL), I'll do some research and figure out what to add.

Believe it or not, I've upped my average daily steps already by 1,000, without even really trying. I decided it was all the getting up and going after craft materials (on the other side of the house) as I need something (and then putting it back right then when finished with it), instead of gathering up what I need for a project before I start. Now, I started doing that because I'd made a horrible mountain of supplies next to my work table already. I couldn't put anymore stuff around the table, LOL. So I've been putting stuff back a lot, really working on it. And I refuse to sit too long. Make myself get up and do something. Lord knows there are always several things to choose from, LOL.

So, anyway, things are good in the Best Health dept. My mom called this morning around 7 a.m. worried about Missy. She's got a problem with her foot and leg, and I'm wondering if it's what I've had (cellulitis). Otherwise she is doing fine. I still can't believe she was almost dead 2 years ago with an incurable blood disease, almost senile and then suffering a stroke. She battled back from all that, and is managing the blood condition well with twice a week blood testing. To me, that's amazing.

You Want Apple Fries With That?

<----- This, I LIKE. Coming to a Burger King near you and me soon, read the scoop here. I like it because, first of all, it's from BK and my BK is right across the street from my subdivision, and it serves hot, fresh food. I would enjoy eating apple slices with a whopper or value menu burger. Cuz, I mean, c'mon, ya gotta eating something else with the burger cuz we're used to the fries. Am I right? Anyway, might as well be some fruit that at least looks like fries. I know, I know, it's geared toward the kiddos. I'm just sayin' it works for me too.

"BK stands for Big Kids, doesn't it?" ~~ Aimeslee

Drama, Drama, Drama

I just had to make that little BK joke cuz I have been having some Bad Karma lately. Left and right. It started last week and I thought it would lighten up, so I didn't mention it here. But it's been over a week now and it's the gift that keeps on giving, just one thing after another. Weird crap, too.

It all started when Hubs went grocery-ing and came back with a gallon of Bluebell Rocky Road in the sack. Uh-oh. Right? Oh-no is what it shoulda been, but did I say that? Hehe, I said yes. And yes again. And again. And at the same time I had a bit of constipation going on, so no poop for like 3 days. And then in the midst of all that I did a no-no and weighed. Before I'd pooped, which is not how it's done around here.

So, of course, I weighed 5 pounds heavier. 5 pounds. WTH? So then I was like omg, I just wiped out like a month's work. And that was only the stuff affecting my diet. There's more.

Missy broke up with Diego. I knew it was coming, from the way she has been talking for the last month before she even left for school. She basically said she wanted to, but was afraid to hurt him. Well, since school began, she's met new guys, and they've pursued her. So, anyway, she has another boyfriend now, it took like one day. His name is Jonathan. He's a psychology major and is going for his PhD. He lives in an apartment off campus with his younger brother. And, he has a car and a job and money, 3 things Diego doesn't have. Now, I hate to sound so uninterested about it all, but it's her love life, her life, so I'm just trying to be supportive and available to her as she ferrots out Life 101. But I did like Diego very much. I'm kind of relieved though, that they broke up, cuz he really was not very ambitious. He's the youngest of 4 and his parents spoil him even more than we spoil our only child. Like Missy herself said, at least she knows the value of money and has a work ethic, and she is thankful we taught that to her. Yup, sometimes being a parent is worth all of the crap when you hear your kid say that out of the blue and really mean it....

So, anyway, back to my BadKarmaFest story...Missy called from schoollast Thursday night, frantic out the bazooka. They had a mouse in their dorm room living room, behind the microwave. I concentrated on calming her down, doing my mom stuff. Although I'm also mentally picturing myself in her situation, and I'm not able to stay there, okay? My girl might be frantic, but she's tough. They went to Wal-mart, got some glue traps, set them, and then both managed to get some sleep there that night.

The next night they caught the mouse. Called their floor advisor and she called the janitors, who showed up at the door saying they couldn't come in the room; the girls have to hand it to them. What????? Well, they did, but still, what's up with that?

Anyway, she calls again a couple nights later, and there are 2 more now. And not even really worried that there were like 3 people in the suite and lights on, etc. Anj saw them and Missy put some peanut butter on the floor and the damn critters came right up to the food and started chomping!

So, the girls cannot stay there now, they are so creeped out. And their floor advisor does not answer her phone, so Anj walks over to the next dorm to grab a floor advisor from there and forces him to come over to help them. He says he will call the exterminator for them the next day and if they cannot stay there he can try to get them a "stipend", whatever in the heck that means. But that's all.

I'm sitting here, 70 miles away, wanting to be Mama Bear and make it all right, but even I can't figure out what to do. My first urge was to go get them an apartment and get them out of there! But, hello, we have $2K "invested" in that dorm room for the semester. Then, I'm really wanting to fire off an email to the college prez telling him about it, and if he doesn't want it spread across America, he needs to get it fixed asap so my daughter can concentrate on her studies and feel safe and clean and disease-free. I mentioned the email idea to Missy and she's like Mom, let them try to fix it. I'll let ya know if I need you to do that down the road. So, I'm just trying to take my mind off it.

Seriously, though, is that not just the grossest thing to have to deal with? Man, I hate that school (and she's only going there cuz Diego is there, too, so get a load of that irony...)

Anyway, so then, I had to do a circle journal page spread and finish it in time to mail it off today. You guessed it, it's not getting mailed today. It's not even done yet. But I do have all the components for the page spread all spread out on a table, waiting, calling my name.

And for some dumb reason, I'm not able to focus on it long enough to make progress. This has been going on with this particular circle journal for almost 3 weeks now. It took me forever to come up with a good theme, idea. It's for Miss Heather, who is the leader of our group, and I wanted it to be special, ya know? Something fresh and funky. I finally came up with a really cool Western take on it, but gosh, does it have to take forever? Boo to me, what is it with me lately. Another irony, cuz Heather's Word is FEAR, and I am apparently afraid to do the dang page spread. Oh, Brother! (lol) What will I think of next? I know this isn't my scrap blog but there's a little sneak peek (of the components just sitting there).

Okay, back to the BadKarmaFest: Sheila, our little micro-mini-Dacshund, starts getting these seizures that she has always had all her life, but she's getting them more frequently and they are a lot more powerful. And she always seems to have them while I'm outside with her, which makes it worse cuz it kills me to have to watch.

So, we've had to wrestle with the idea for a while now of having her put down, and it is shaping up to be something I am going to have to do. Hubs can't bring himself to, and Missy says all she wants is for me to wait til she's not there. Both of them are chicken when it comes to doing that deed, so I guess I'm elected. Actually, I want to have it done. She's in pain on a daily basis. She'll be 13 in October, so she's lived a good life. I just do not believe in having her suffer at this stage in her life, because she's old and tired, and everything is hard for her. But even though I'm not chicken about it, it's just creepy and dark and so final. We are pretty sure she's turning senile though, so it's the best thing.

Anyway, I think there's gotta be more, but I'm getting really tired of typing, so I'll just say this is to be continued if I think of any more things that happened. And plus, there'll be something that happens today, bet me. Oh, yeah, I remember: we have Tropical Storm #9 now, knocking on our shore door. Mega flooding rain event, lovely. And Hubs is taking Friday off to go pick up Missy cuz she has a doctor's appointment here that afternoon. She's planning to spend the weekend, then we'll take her back Sunday. But that stretch of Interstate 10 between us is where the dang storm is going to be coming ashore. So, who knows if she'll get to come or not. We may have to reschedule that doctor's appointment.

A Not-So-Guilty Pleasure for You

1. Crumble up a few of these into a small bowl:

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2. Microwave this TV dinner entree, and when cooked layer the broccoli onto the chips, then the chicken and cheese sauce:

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3. Enjoy!
Ooops, looks like I already did {contented blush}:


The entree has 220 calories and is quite filling for a lunch or a mid-afternoon snack. The cheese sauce is really good, does not clump up or lose its blendedness, and does not taste like cheese whiz, velveeta or that crap they ladle onto tortilla chips at little league concession stands. The spices are great, the chicken chunky, and if you add the chips to it (about 15 calories per chip and it only takes 2 or 3 to line a small bowl), it takes just like King Ranch Chicken, if I'm lyin' I'm dyin'. Try it!

Catching Up on the Therapy

Whoa, well, as soon as I decide not to push the step increases, I ended up adding onto my daily count Monday and Tuesday as if I was still aiming for that. Go figure, LOL I had an incredible amount of energy Monday... so much so that I only got 3 hours of sleep that night, then went at top speed all day yesterday, then only 4 hours last night! How whack is that?

So today (Wednesday), I'm dragging worse than a drag queen, sweeties, lemme tellya! My dang bed looks sooooo good every time I walk by it. The only reason I'm not in it right this momento is cuz I am even hungrier than I am exhausted. Wait, wait for it, it'll make sense here in a minute, LOL. Hubs is off work and slept so late I thought he might be dead or something, but he just got up a few minutes ago and will be making us breakfast soon, so I just gotta hold out for those yummy scrambled egg tacos he's gonna make with the low-carb tortillas. Then I will probably sleep all day long. I can handle the day after one night of crappy sleep, but not two nights like that.

So I am trying to get my blogging done before that all happens. And of course, how convenient (not), I remembered I never blogged about my therapy sessions and how they were going. And being as I finished them last week (yay! no more trips to Houston every week!), I guess I'd better blog about it before I forget what to blog about.

[Sorry, had to take a long nap before I could continue...those tacos were sooooo good, lol)

Okay, so I don't really remember ... I think the last time I blogged about therapy, I was happy with the one-on-ones but getting bored with the group sessions. So, anyway, I ended up not going to any more group sessions. That was back around August 1st or so, and it has not been a bad decision at all. My therapist switched me to her partner, and I thought that was gonna be a bummer, but it ended up being wonderful, a great decision. The new lady has a sister who scrapbooks and had just gone through something similar earlier in the year! Get out! Right? It really made things click, cuz she understood the allure of the passion and the fun to scrapping and creating art, to just a regular everyday ole' person like me. And she understood the whole online thing, and she knew 2peas, which was where her sister got involved too much into the social drama that can erupt there and any board frankly, but of course I was not given a name and that drove me nuts for a bit, LOL. I wanted to know who her sister is. LOL Anyway, I was able to decide that while 2peas doesn't affect me that way, the smaller boards online DO. To me, 2peas is just way too big to get "involved and invested" there, and I've always felt that way. I mean, that's just the way it affects me, your mileage may vary as they say.

I did have a slight detour because of some negative words from someone online that I had thought was my friend, way back at the beginning of all this. I couldn't shake my negative reactive feelings, so I had to work it out in therapy. It seemed to me like I was more concerned with not being rude in retaliation for her hurting me with the comment, instead of being outwardly angry. It just festered and I eventually became really really angry. Dr. J really helped me thru that sa far as I could get, cuz I'm still disgruntled about it, to the extent that I wouldn't want to discuss it with the "friend", but I did get to a healthy self-interest point to say to myself and mean it: good-bye, good luck and good riddence. Dr. J and I also agreed that it was sort of a secret blessing that I was basically called dishonest for what, not hanging out on boards? Man, that is primo judgementalism, glad your life and self are so perfect {not!}, and you feel so confident about judging others so quickly.

As you can plainly see, it's a sore subject, but for awhile there, I was just taking all the blame, when I don't owe a bit of anything for that. Just being PASSIVE. Man, that's was my word of the month for July, huh? Dr. J made me realize that when people are faced with a life change and especially if it is hard to see and deal with, they are kind of in shock once they realize what's going down. And you know, they don't have the mental or emotional energy to go around to 4 boards and discuss with everyone individually, like, "so sorry, won't be on any more, thanks!!" I did that on my blog, and you read it if you wanna know what's up in my life, hello?

Oooooooo, this is also why I put off blogging about this, cuz it finally started ticking me off bigtime. LOL, okay, anyway, back to the story. Dr, J. said this was a blessing cuz it got my dander up and increased my success. So in a sad and twisted sort of way, I suppose I should say thank you to that person. Except, that ain't evuh gonna happen, LOL, possibly in 50 years. So okay, maybe that's out of my system for awhile.....

Dr. J also worked with me to uncover what else was driving me to live such a passive life, after a whole lifetime of not being that way. After exploring several aspects of it, we came up with some ideas. What I liked about Dr. J. was that she could identify behaviors well, and asks great questions to get to the causes for the behaviors. (Bad part is that ya haveta dredge up a lotta old memories to help her do this). It seems that I never actually "fought" my arthritii diagnosis back in 2002, I just seemed to accept it. But Dr. J. thinks I was tremendously overwhelmed by it because of the way it detrimentally changed me physically (I'd always been fit up to then no matter how much I weighed). So I gave up, and the passive behavior is characteristic of this. Really simple but so hard to believe that little negativity can wreak such havoc. But it can.

I have to say that this was a dreaded but positive experience for me. I'd seen a psychologist in my 20's to help me figure out my mom and why I did some of the same things she did, and to basically find out who I was (think Gail Sheehy "Passages", cleaning out your closet, which I was eat up with back then); then, about 10 years later Hubs and I had seen a therapist for a brief period for marriage counseling. Both times it was basically me/us talking and the professional never saying much at all. This was irritating to me, even though I know it is a common way of doing it. But Dr. J., she speaks her mind and often. It VERY MUCH enhanced the process. I cannot say enough about this. I told her my thoughts and she said that historically that's a much better way to connect with MALE patients and a much preferred way for MALE therapists, but things are slowly changing. Man, discrimination in the most unsuspecting places, huh? I sure coulda used Dr. J. back 30 years ago, lemme tellya. But oh well, water under the bridge.

Probably the biggest lesson I came away with is to live for me more, stand up for me more, do not step back into the shadows for anyone. I'm still realizing every week how easily this can happen to me, LOL. Seriously. Anywayz, that's the deal, Lucille. Case closed. I've got a gameplan about online behavior. Not gonna do the smaller message boards any more. Since I can handle 2peas no problem, I'll stick to that one only. My blogs are helpful for venting and expressing and communicating, so I'll keep those up. As for my buying supplies (and everything I buy), I now tell Hubs before I buy anything, which means I pick it out first and find the best buy. The very act of running it past Hubs keeps it down to what I need, versus what I want (which is almost everything, lol). Hubs ALWAYS says fine, so it's not humiliating or frustrating. I don't have to justify to him. He has learned that I already do that before telling him, and he's never really denied me anything anyway. The good in that is self-evident, but there is also bad if I'm out of control. But I really hate buying anything now, so I hope that feeling never leaves me. (Plus, gotta love Dr. J: she kept telling me what I'd spent on scrapping was not all that big since I never spend much on myself at all, so I need to allow myself not to feel guilt any more for it and just learn and go forward. Good advice.)

Whew! Now you can see why I'd been puttin' that off, lol...

Ped-O-Cures

It occurred to me I'd never shown a photo of my pedometer, so there it is. The Omron H-112, which I am totally all shines for and I bought it here for a very reasonable $20.

All I'm sayin' is, if you are not happy with your pedometer or are looking for one that will store each day's readings (steps, aerobic calories, areobic steps, and miles walked) separately for 7 days, please do buy this model. It's worth the money, people... remember, I accidentally dropped this into the toilet and it still works perfectly! LOLOL A better testimonial than that is hard to find, LOLOL.

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Before I forget (again), let me tell you that last Thursday, I got very sick (which is why I did not blog for a couple of days). It was baaaaaaad, people. I still do not know exactly what it was, but I think it was food poisoning. Hubs cooked dinner that night and so we both ate the same dinner: I got sick, he did not. I looked at what I'd eaten that day that he did not, and so it was either a baked potato or my yogurt (I ate the potato with my meal, and the yogurt for a snack an hour or so before dinner).

Here's what happened. We ate dinner. About an hour or so later, I began having HORRIBLE cramps in my lower abdomen, way down there, like really low menstrual cramps, but about 3 times worse. Seriously, I had to do Lamaze breathing to just survive them. Then, about 30 minutes into them, they began moving north. I thought, how weird. Then, I suddenly began feeling nauseous. I managed to grab a half-full trash can by my scrapping desk with a bag liner and run to the bathroom before throwing up. Yup, had to sit on the pot and throw up, in case I began losing it on both ends, if you get my drift. OMG, it was horrid. I hate throwing up worse than anything in the world. But, thankfully, no dry heaves and no lingering nausea. I threw up twice and then felt really good, exactly like the offending poison had been vanquished. So, that's why I feel it was food poisoning. I did have more lower ab cramps and eventually pooped, but no diahrrea. Apparently, the poison was pretty much all upchucked.

Hubs thinks it could have been some stray dirt or something on the potato, under the skin, but I remember thoroughly scrubbing the dang thing before baking it. I believe it was the yogurt. I'd eaten the first one from a four-pack purchased a couple of days prior, with a Sept. 5th expiration date. I now think that pack of yogurt was what they call in the grocery store industry a "put-back".

Call me crazy, but my prior experience as a grocery checker at Safeway back in the 70's taught me a lot of useful things, one of which is to choose my refrigerated and frozen foods from the back of the shelf whenever possible. Why? Because the front items could possibly be "put-backs", that's why. A "put-back" is just what it means: you've all seen stray grocery items on shelves not where they belong, right? People decide they don't want something in their cart and put it back, but not where they got it from, and in the case of refrigerated/frozen stuff, this sets up spoilage if someone puts back one of them on the canned goods isle and it's not found by employees til 12 hours or 2 days later.

Well, those employees are instructed to put that item right back in the fridge or freezer section, as if nothing happened, as if it had never left. I'm dead serious. And 95% put it back right in front. It's just how it's done. And that spoilt item is sitting there waiting for unsuspecting you to choose it and take it home.

I've concluded that's what must have happened, because my Hubs has never believed me about put-backs and continues to this day to choose stuff from the front, although I did convince Missy to choose stuff from the back (she became a believer once she discovered you get the better expiration dates that way). When I told Hubs my conclusions, he did not disagree, which means in Hubs-speak that he agrees. I just hope he will become a back of the shelf customer from now on. He saw just how sick it made me and how well I was afterwards. I hope he realizes it could be him next, since he buys 90% of the groceries.

And if this is the first time this has ever occurred to you, I hope it makes you think twice about just grabbing climate-controlled merchandise from the front and going. Until the day comes when put-backs change color and glow once they are spoiled, it's just good sense to dig to the back. Trust me on this, cuz there are tons of put-backs in every grocery store on a daily basis.

Anywayzzzz, Hubs got me some more yogurt (with a Sept. 24th exp date), and I am happy to say that it's all gone down just fine.

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On the coffee front, I am still cream-free, peeps. It has been tough, but my teeth are feeling much less fuzzy between brushings, and man, I'm probably taking in several hundred less calories every day. Something else, I'm drinking much less coffee when it is black. But it seems to work as good if not better (the caffeine, that is). Weird, huh? Gotta love the Chemistry of Digestion. I can drink one cup of black coffee now and get about the same caffeine effect as almost a POT of creamed-up and Sweet-n-Lowed coffee.

Yes, that is correct, you read that right. I used to drink at LEAST a pot a day. Sometimes TWO pots. And I used to drink it out of a 16-ounce latte cup, special ones that I bought just for my coffee. I mean, drinking a whole pot of coffee would take forever if I had to add cream and sweetner to little 8-oz mugs, right? LMAO - sorry, but this makes me giggle...what a great way to cut calories and improve my healthy eating, yet I never even considered it until lately (yeah, I didn't wanna give it up is what that was). The reason I fought it was for taste, or so I thought. Turns out the taste of a good cup of black coffee is not that bad once you keep a clean coffeemaker and use decent coffee and cold (Brita) filtered water to make it with. So, if you are not seeing results with your weight loss, maybe it's that Starbucks addiction, peeps. (Yup, saying a prayer of thanks here that I never got into the whole Starbucks thing ... OMG, I'm not EVEN gonna think about that ...).

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I'm still managing to lose a pound or 3/4 of one every 2-3 days, an average of 2 pounds every 7-10 days, which is fabulous for me. Still weighing after I poop, which is usual within an hour or two of waking up for the day. I do not weigh every time I poop, but looking at my lil datebook (where I record everything), I see that I weigh myself about twice a week.

My big plan to add 200 steps to every day's count is a dismal flop. I was doing great until I had the food poisoning (which was like only a day or so after I began). Throwing up totally wipes me out for days afterward, and I totally wallowed in it, LOL. I didn't NOT walk, I just did not push myself to get to a certain step count. Looking back, I guess I should feel good about not quitting, and now I feel good about stepping it up again. Yep, I'm back on track now (altho I may not try to add a certain number of steps). Here's a great idea I've implemented to help me get my minimum done every day. If it can help you, try it!

Okay, first let me remind everyone I'm technically disabled and so I step-walk a very small amount compared to what we are supposed to every day. I basically walk 3K a day (versus the 10K a day we are supposed to do). Additionally, I have the lower back-hip pain, so I only walk a certain amount at one time, which means I have to get my walking done in bunches, not all at once. And also, let me say that until it cools down here and stops constantly raining, I'll be walking inside, thank you (and without a treadmill, darnit, wish I had one).

I have a circular "track" of sorts that I walk: I begin in the family room, walk thru the breakfast room, kitchen, dining room, living room, foyer, and then back into the family room. Or, the exact opposite, to vary it up. That's what I call one "lap". And I know how many steps that "lap" is. Then I just do it as many times as I need to get a certain number of steps in. And I do that several times a day.

Yes, I know that is a really hard way to get my steps, but it is the only way I've been able to do it. It works for me, and it works, period. For those of you who have physical constraints, try something like this. It does help, it does do you good.

Anyway, here's where my problem comes in. I get to going on my laps and then forget how many I've done! Was that the fifth time around or the third or the seventh? I love to just let my mind relax and run where it wishes whenever I walk, so you can see the problem, LOL. Here's what I came up with yesterday, and it works so good!

I do my laps in bunches of tens, so I got a tall coke glass and ten pennies. I put the glass on a table that I pass by on my lap, and I begin my laps there. I hold the pennies in my hand, and every time I pass the glass, I drop one in. When all the pennies are in the glass, I've done my lap bunch. Simple as that. I never forget to drop a penny in, no matter how spaced-out my brain is while I'm walking (and the more spaced-out, the better in my book, because I can walk a lot longer without it seeming to be drudgery).

Now, if I can just get more of my lap bunches in during the first half of my day, I'll be a happy girl!

Have a great Labor Day night, folks!

Big THANKS to MARIA BELL

For those of you who read this blog for any kind of motivation or inspiration, then surely you've found Maria's Journey to Skinnyville blog. There's a link to it on my sidebar.

I've been keeping my weight and exercise data in my little datebook fairly consistantly since 4-21-2006, and today I made a very crude graph of my weight for the last 16 months. You remember graphs in high school math, right? X znd Y axis? I made the x axis be weight in pounds and the y axis be time in months. Then I plotted the weight readings I'd taken when I took them.

What I discovered was a hideous amount of roller-coaster rides where I lost, then gained back, then lost, then gained back. Down, Up, down, up, down. Wow, nothing like a graph to make the point! But what I also saw was that since I've been inspired and motivated by reading Maria's blog, my roller coaster has vanished!

Coincidence? LOL, I don't think so. I know it's helped me, even when Maria was on what I call her Superwoman program of diet and exercise. I couldn't even hope to do what she was doing, yet she has inspired me to keep going with my own plan. In little but important ways, she's made it impossible for me to neglect my plan, and I realize now from doing the graph that neglect is what caused the roller-coastering. Forget, neglect ... and the pounds slowly start packing back on. Neglect is the enemy of Downward Trajectory (when it comes to weight loss, that is). Damn, don't we all wish that weight loss was subject to the Laws of Gravity, hehe.

So, anyways, I want to publicly thank you, Maria, for being my Motivation Angel: for reading and sharing, for assessing and adapting, for recording it all on your new blog. Were I able to grant you a wish, it would be for you to wake up tomorrow morning and discover yourself 30 pounds lighter!