In the same day, I decided to make a big batch of marinara sauce because I wanted to try out the homemade noodles that the 86 year old lady whose farmhouse I stayed in in Ohio had gifted me with. You know I don’t eat pasta that often, but I had to try these. They really were very tasty noodles! And the marinara sauce was yummy. I roughly followed my directions for Darn Good Spaghetti Sauce (but started with a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of tomato sauce) and omitted the meat so I could use it in a variety of ways. Now I have lots of marinara sauce in the freezer!

I added some turkey burger to some of the sauce for this meal.

On Thursday, MLG (master landscaping guy) came over to start on the new raised bed. He worked for 2 1/2 hours IN THE RAIN before giving up. He came over again on Saturday morning to finish the job, and then went to the nursery to get a truckload of dirt to fill it up! I helped out by moving the dirt around as he dumped in wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of the stuff. It doesn’t look like much, but that is actually very hard work. I love the way he did it in tiers.

This picture is taken from my front door, so you can see the first bed and where it is in perspective to that. Of course, MLG pointed out that it would look super cool if we were to continue the flagstone pavers up between the two beds. And he’s right, it would. I am going to price them at Home Depot this week.

I woke up with a very sore back on Saturday morning. Later in the afternoon, I went to the gym for a nice long swim. I don’t know if that helped it or not, but for the time I was in the pool, nothing hurt. It sure was nice.

On Sunday morning I wanted to try a new recipe. I had bookmarked this original recipe for “giant breakfast cookies.” Of course, I had to try to lighten it up a bit. Plus, I didn’t have applesauce, so I sub’d pumpkin. Did you know that applesauce and pumpkin have the same amount of calories??

These were quite tasty (and quite gigantic!) I put it on the plate that I usually plate my scones on for comparison. I think they are the same size as my scones. And I was very pleased with how long it kept me full. To make sure they were worthy, I had another one for breakfast this morning. I’ll post my recipe later today.

Before church, I hit the gym for a fairly long session on the bikes. I don’t really know what other people do on the bikes, but my mileage/time is pretty consistent. In 45 minutes I “rode” 9 1/2 miles.

And then Sunday afternoon I went to a potluck. Oh brother. I guess in hindsight I didn’t do too badly. A few too many dessert samples were consumed. (I took my go-to potluck dish of a ton of fresh fruit and a bowl of the Creamy Fruit Dip.) It was a potluck to benefit Second Chance Dogs. This is Noah’s trainer’s project. She takes dogs from the local humane societies that often times are unadoptable and keeps them on her ranch and works with them until they are perfect canine citizens and then finds homes for them. The transformations are amazing. She has re-homed over 250 dogs in the past 10 years.

And in between, I did some quilting. Lots and lots of quilting. It was a VGW (Very Good Weekend.) Hope yours was a good one too!

Here’s one thing I was very certain of, even before I got home. I knew for sure that I wanted to continue to eat the way I’ve learned to eat. I knew that I wanted to make exercise a part of my daily life. It was a really good feeling to be confident of that, even as I enjoyed some of the definitely-not-healthy-but-oh-so-delicious local fare.

My new mug and plate for my afternoon coffee break.

The quilt workshop was more than fabulous. I am still processing all that I learned, and will share more in the days to come on my quilt blog. But here’s the first thing I want to share. After all, this IS a blog. Lynn of Lynn’s Weigh and I really did get to meet! Lynn was the very first blog I ever read. I never even knew there was such a thing as blogs until I picked up the “Half Their Size” issue of People magazine, and then read the tiny writing in the little box that said to check out Lynn’s blog. That was just about the time that I had lost most of my weight and was really looking for a place of encouragement. I found it in the blogging world, and Lynn was just the right person to introduce me to it. If she hadn’t been such a good writer, I don’t know if I would have continued to explore blogging. So THANK YOU Lynn!

Since I was in Amish country, and EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday in Amish country (oops,) I drove over to Pittsburgh to meet Lynn. We decided on a restaurant called First Watch, and using my new-fangled equipment, I googled directions on my Kindle Fire, and then wrote them out longhand to follow as I drove.

Here’s where I ended up.

Thanks, Google Maps.

Luckily, Lynn had a garmin, so she was able to find me, and since we were nowhere near the original meeting place, we decided on “Mad Mex!” Yumm.

Its so fun to meet someone in person for the first time, and feel so comfortable. We talked like old friends. Which, in one way, I guess we are. Blogging is like that. We share very personal parts of our lives sometimes.

I can only blame my funky hair on travel conditions!

This month we are tackling the topic of regaining weight after a large weight loss–IS IT INEVITABLE??? Well, if you look at the statistics, I guess it is. “They” say that 95% of the people who lose weight will regain all the weight they lost. But that’s not really what we’re talking about.  At least its not what I want to talk about.

I want to talk specifically about me. Isn’t that what this blog is all about? I want to talk about people who’ve lost a large amount of weight–let’s say one hundred pounds,– and then bounce back up 10-20-or 30 pounds. Is that inevitable? Is it the norm? Short answer: I don’t know. I’ve never read anything directly addressing that issue. But I do know what I have witnessed. And I know my own experience.

Eight years ago I weighed 255 pounds.

Two years later, I had lost 100 pounds.

(In 2009, at 155 pounds.)

 I maintained it for a while, and then over a period of about 3 years I gained back 25 pounds. Was that because life was extra stressful during those 3 years? (It was.) Was it because I ate too much? (Umm, yeah. Obviously I ate too much to maintain that weight loss.) Or was it because my body was struggling to “return to normal”?

• My life was super stressful for those three years. I can see it better now than I did when I was in the midst of it. I don’t remember thinking specifically “Oh I can’t stand the stress. I’m going to eat whatever I want.” And the truth is, stress is just part of life. It will always be with us. It was during this time that I worked through a book on emotional eating and discovered that I ate in response to anxiety.Who knew? 
• Obviously I ate too much. But I didn’t routinely overeat. I didn’t binge. I actually was learning that whole time about eating healthier whole foods. I explored paleo, raw, vegetarian, and even vegan diets. They all have benefits–and some really great-tasting recipes! ( I don’t follow any of those specific diets.) During this time I also explored the thought processes of Mindful Eating and HAES (Health at every size.) I don’t think that these two lines of thought were particularly helpful to me.
• I do think that there is a huge component of your body wanting to return to homeostasis (its own version of normal.) This is not a popular view, because it means we are not exactly in complete control of what is happening to us.

Right now, here’s what I think happened to me. I lost 100 pounds. That did not even get me close to a “normal BMI” (a number I don’t pay attention to any more.) Still, it was a 40 percent reduction in what my body had come to consider normal. My life was stressful, and even though I had been maintaining a weight loss for several years, I had not truly addressed the emotional component of it. I consider this to be one of the most helpful aspects of my journey. And I believe that there was a component of my body fighting for homeostasis. That large of a weight loss was perceived as abnormal by my body. That is why there is a lot of talk about POW’s (Previously Over Weight) having to be super-vigilant about what they eat. It ISN’T the same for us. During the time I regained the 25 pounds, there were also numerous attempts to lose the weight. Obviously none were ultimately successful.

(Last November, at 180 pounds. Notice the skillful camouflage LOL.)

I am hopeful that now my body has accepted this “new” weight as normal (after six years!) and that that is why I am currently having more success at continual weight loss than I have  in the past three years. Does that make any sense? So if I am “successful” and make it to my new low goal of 140 pounds (a 22 percent reduction in my weight,) and I am correct in my assumptions, I can also be sure that my body will fight that loss as well, and that I might have a little rebound weight.

And so it goes…

To read more about “through thick and thin,” be sure to check out my friends and maintaining experts:

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Lori @ Finding Radiance

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: Adventures in Maintenance is Lynn, Lori, Debby, Shelley, and Cammy, former weight-loss bloggers who now write about life in maintenance. We formed AIM to work together to turn up the volume on the issues facing people in weight maintenance. We publish a post on the same topic on the first Monday of each month. Let us know if there is a topic you’d like us to address!

When I came up with the idea for the “Me Diet,” I almost immediately thought, what are you going to do if this doesn’t work? What if you get too hungry or too bored, then what? So I wrote down a little plan. Which included adding in more vegetables.

So far I’m not too bored, but I am starting to get a little hungry. Not stomach growling hungry, more like “out of fuel” hungry. So I have added in more vegetables. I usually have some kind of vegetable with my protein shake. And I’ve tried upping the ante at dinner time by having at least two vegetables, or a combo of veggies. I asked about “complex” veggie recipes recently. I remembered that Georgie had quite a treasure trove of vegetable recipes. I’ve tried a couple of her combinations, and bookmarked a few more. I’ve also realized that most of the time I can’t be bothered with complex recipes. I’m perfectly happy with plain and simple.

Here are a few of my recent vegetables:

Asparagus and butternut squash. You gotta love the pre-cut veggies that are now available. I got this squash in a bag on sale for $1!

Brocolli Slaw! I love this stuff. I’ve had it in several different salad combos. Its also great in stir fries. This was an Asian style salad with pineapple and chicken and Paul Newman’s Sesame Ginger dressing (35 cal/serv!)

Here I added it to some romaine lettuce and other stuff. I had a wonderful salad at a restaurant recently that had several different fruits in it, including strawberries and watermelon!

(There’s not that many walnuts in this salad–they just all got into the picture!)

Here’s how I often have my vegetables: just boiled with some Mrs. Dash seasoning. Its quick and easy, and I cook up a big pot so I can have it warmed up for several different meals.

I usually cook more than one serving of vegetables at a time. They keep well in the fridge, and so are available for the days I don’t feel like cooking. Fortunately I like vegetables, so it is not hard for me to eat a variety of them. They have so many nutrients. Its a good thing, as our friend MS would say.

I have also been eating potatoes a little more frequently, thanks to another sale–5 pounds of red potatoes for $1! Who could resist? I usually have a small one or half of a medium one, baked. Again, potatoes have a lot of nutrients in them. I usually have them with some spray ‘butter’ or topped with part of my dinner (meat, cottage cheese, or mushrooms and onions. Yumm.) Don’t avoid potatoes. Avoid the caloric POTATO TOPPERS.

I generally have a lot of salad fixings around. A salad is  quick to fix when you have all the ingredients ready. And it takes a long time to eat–so very enjoyable.

My favorite (and only) raw vegetable that I munch on are the baby carrots. They come in handy, especially when I am cooking dinner. Especially because I have to feed the dogs before I get to eat…

Adding in a few more vegetable servings during the day has really kept me quite full!

That’s about it for today. Don’t forget, there’ll be an new AIM (Adventures in Maintenance) post up on Monday.

When I read her most recent book, that was when I got the idea to take a workshop from her. I loved her thought process. And it seemed to fit right in with the style of quilts I was currently working on (housetop quilts.) Just a week ago, I ordered another of her books, and that has really inspired me again. Her early work is astounding!

I’m writing this post on the odd chance that someone reading might have some good tips for me. After the workshop I am planning on spending 3 days exploring Ohio Amish Country. Anything I should not miss?

As far as food goes, this trip I have decided to just go with the flow. I will be staying at a bed and breakfast most of the time. And during the workshop lunch, dinner, and afternoon snack is provided. I might bring a few Quest bars, but otherwise, will not bring any food with me. If there are not enough healthy choices included, there are always grocery stores!

For exercise, I will keep up with my PT exercises, and walk. I will probably do some stretching too, because that will just feel good after the long hours of sitting in the workshop.

Here’s a couple of knitting projects I’ve been working on. I took a week off from quilting (to get more writing done–ha!) and so more knitting than usual was happening.

These little things are called hexi-puffs! I think of them as the knitter’s version of a quilter’s yo-yo. If you make enough of either of them, you can join them together to make a quilt.

And I finally finished my linen stitch scarf. This scarf took a long time to knit–450 stitches knitted end to end, and the stitch pattern basically takes twice as long as normal knitting because you are slipping every other stitch. But it was very enjoyable to work on. It is knit out of Koigu yarn, one of my favorites. (The hexi-puffs are also koigu!)

I have another post set for Saturday, and then don’t forget Monday. It is the first Monday of May, and all of us AIM girls will have a new topic up for you to enjoy.

The Queen has requested an audience. Much like her owner, when she is falsely accused (scroll to bottom of entry), she is like a dog on a bone. She won’t let it go.

I am NOT a Pink Flower Thief.

 I provide photographic evidence. There is NOTHING to be had in this garden BUT pink flowers. (editor’s note: my latest purchases from the nursery.)

There has been much goings on in the garden these days. A new throne room has been added.

I await the installation of the throne.

It is the appropriate height. The Queen must ALWAYS be higher than her minions.

Well, where is it??? A queen MUST have a throne. (editor’s note: all of this conversation must be read in a high, squeaky, demanding, queenly voice.)

In addition, I feel the need to unburden myself of the extreme vexation of living with unruly servants. This bed was installed for MY pleasure. I must be as close as possible to the lady (editor’s note: I put this little bed right next to my sewing table to keep Sophie from pacing.)

My manservant. As usual, doing NOTHING. He has gotten old and relatively useless to my purposes.

My lady in waiting. She has turned out to be quite the challenge. I am not done training her yet.

I finally tried sharing it with her. It DID NOT feel right.

Ah. This is how things must be.

Still, I must not be too hard on my servants. That is the true nature of The Royalty. Generosity of spirit is what we are known for (editors note: oh brother…)

The manservant, though relatively useless, is a very loyal soul.

I bid you all a fond farewell. I shall keep you informed of the latest comings and goings in my kingdom (editor’s note: there will be more garden updates in the future.)

 

That night I went on to church for our Christmas dinner. Because that’s what we do in America. We say our lives will be changed forever. But the next day we go out for lunch with our friends.

Our church dinner is always a very pretty affair. Each table is hosted by a different woman, and she decorates the table using her best dishes and Christmas decorations. Honestly, it kind of irritates me. But that is a story for another time. At some point during the dinner I looked around the room and thought, it could happen here. This is exactly the kind of unexpected place where this kind of unexpected horror could take place. Uncertain times.

And it just continued on from there. A blogger died unexpectedly. A friend’s husband got cancer and was gone in four months. The Boston Marathon. West, TX. Uncertain times.

Brene Brown spoke about the collective fear she sees in our culture since 9/11 hit.

Anne Lamott wrote about her trip to Europe. A friend advised her that she needed to see a concentration camp in person “to get at a cellular level the fact that despite our great love and art, we are a violent species. Cain is still killing Abel.” There was a beginning, but there is no end to evil in our world.

When we are honest and true, we know deep down that all of life is uncertain. We just relate more to certain events. “It could have been my child.” “I am a runner.” “I am a blogger.” “My brother lives in west Texas…” And the biggest fear “It could have been me.”

As always, I turn to my God for answers. I’m afraid there are many things that won’t be answered clearly in this lifetime. I don’t pretend to understand why these things happen. I won’t try to give you trite answers, or to tie everything up in a neat little theological package with a pretty little bow on top.  But I was comforted by the words I found in the Psalms. For me, this is the only way I can live. I hope in my God. He is my Rock and my fortress.

I run to Him in uncertain times. And I find hope.

(You can see more of the quilt on my quilt blog.)

This is the camellia, and three hydrangeas. None of them have been happy in pots.

Already the camellia looks better than it has looked in years!

And here is an updated picture of the bed. I planted two bleeding hearts (one pink and one white, some little begonias, and some irish moss. I love ground cover. I also planted my favorite corsican mint under the tree, and I am attempting (one more time) to grow elfin thyme between the pavers.

Here is photographic evidence that The Queen is a Pink Flower Thief!!

Y’all have a good weekend. Its finally warming up here, so I am planning to get some serious swimming done today! Right after I get some serious quilting done.

Okay. As I wrote that paragraph, there was a little Twilight Zone music playing in my head. It seemed like a deja vu thing was happening because I realized that the Next. Big. Thing. that I am planning is very similar to what I just described. Does that negate it being the next big thing?

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got, so without further ado, I’ll tell you about the trip that is sneaking up on me very quickly now. It started when I got Nancy Crow’s huge book, and read the whole thing in one sitting. Nancy is a very famous artist who uses quilts as her chosen medium. I knew about her, but was never interested in making quilts like hers. Until I started making quilts like hers… The housetop quilt project introduced me to using solid colored fabrics in an unconventional fashion. I found Nancy’s thought process, and description of her art fascinating. And so I started fantasizing about taking one of her workshops. They are held in a huge barn, on her farm in Ohio, which sounded like so much fun. I had a friend that was going to go with me, and so that kind of helped me to make the decision to commit to it last fall. As soon as I paid the deposit, I got cold feet. I heard about how serious Nancy was. She taught her art quilting as though it was a college level course. I don’t want to work that hard! I whined. But there were no backsies, Nancy’s secretary said. So I decided to go with it.

Nancy’s barn where the workshops are held!

And then, as usual, I started exploring the area via the internet. I decided to be a little bit adventurous and booked a farm stay on a farm near to the workshop. The older lady whose house I will be staying at, said “now don’t go bringing a lot of clothes with you.” What?? I thought. Don’t you have any closets there??  And then she explained, “I’ll do your  laundry mid-week.” Wow.

I discovered there was a large Amish community in Ohio (where the workshop is,) so I added a few days onto my trip. I am going to be adventurous and just explore without making any reservations. I google-mapped to see if any of my blogging friends were close enough to visit. SQUEEEE!!! Lynn, the blogger who introduced me to this whole internet world of blogging, was willing to drive a couple hours to meet me for lunch! I first “met” Lynn when I was close to the end of my original weight loss, and I was looking for help and encouragement in maintaining that loss. Lynn was one of the “losers” featured in People Magazine’s “Half Their Size” issue that comes out every January. There was one of those little tiny boxes at the bottom of the page that said “check out Lynn’s blog.” I had never even heard of such a thing. And that was the beginning of my involvement in the blogging world!

So that is my next big thing. It may seem like just another trip. But I think that studying with Nancy Crow will improve my quilting and bring my art to another level. And then, as my BF said, “Once you take Nancy Crow, you’re pretty much done with workshops, aren’t you?” And that might lead to my Next.Big.Thing. But I’m not quite ready to share that one! Never fear. There’ll be another of these crazy fun memes coming around in a few months, and I might be ready to share it by then.

Yard guy came over this morning. Oh my. That guy works so hard. And so fast. I can hardly believe all that he got done this morning. And because he was working, and I needed to make decisions about where to move stuff/plant stuff, I worked pretty hard out there too. My yard has not looked this good practically since I moved here, and between him and me, we have even more ideas to fix it up. I am pretty excited about the whole thing. This is the first time I have been able to put plants in the ground in forever. And then I looked back and saw that like five out of the last six posts were about the yard and/or working outside. I guess it is consuming a lot of my time and thoughts right now.

So back to the mishmash. Do you guys floss your teeth? I have never been able to make myself floss regularly. But at my last cleaning, the tech made some semi-threatening statement about having to do some ‘gum work’ if it didn’t improve. And so I became a flossing fanatic.  I got myself one of those Reach thingies. I like it a LOT better than floss.I was so proud yesterday when she kept exclaiming about how good my gums looked! I am a convert.

I tried something new-to-me. I made a veggie stir fry WITHOUT rice. I put a lot of those bean sprouts in it, and I LOVED it. They gave it a nice texture, and without the rice, you can have a bigger volume of vegetables. And you know me, I’m a volume eater. This bowl had about 200 calories. I added some shredded chicken thigh meat and some little shrimp.

I am going to start gathering more complex vegetable recipes. If you have any favorites, let me know.

Here’s this morning’s breakfast. Its not new. But saving the leftover egg mixture is new. (I just mix 1 egg, 1/4 cup egg beaters, and 1/4 cup almond breeze, and whatever flavors I want–usually splenda, cinnamon, and vanilla.) The egg mixture keeps well in the refrigerator, and is plenty to make another English muffin french toast later in the week. I use Thomas’s Whole Grain English muffins. This breakfast only has about 150 calories (topped with spray butter, cinnamon splenda, and SF syrup.)

I got some new frying pans–8 inch and 10 inch. These are the pans I use all the time. My old ones were pretty beat up. I like these a lot so far. (Both of the above dishes were cooked in this pan.) The best part is that I found them at Ross–two for $19.99!)

And back to the yard. Here’s how the yard looked before yard guy came. Did I show you all these little perennials I planted? And that is my favorite corsican mint ground cover to support the mound around the tree.

Bleeding heart:

And this little clump of shamrock. Isn’t it charming?

This camellia was in a huge pot, but was not that happy in there. It is a low-growing camellia, and is the one that has the pretty pink blossoms in November. Yard guy patiently rotated it so that I could choose the angle I liked best before he planted it. I think it’ll be much happier in the ground here.

And then yard guy tackled this very large atlas cedar. It was in a wine barrel, and the pot I wanted it in was narrower and deeper than the wine barrel. He did a super job of transferring it. You can see how huge the pot is compared to the lawn chair in the background.

And my proudest, happiest moment today! A cherry tree IN THE GROUND!! If you only knew what the ground was really like around here. Rocks and roots and clay. And now yard guy came up with some landscaping that we can do in that area of the yard! So exciting.

See that mound of dirt in the corner of the fence? That’s from Noah’s ‘landscaping’ efforts over the past few years. We decided to add a bit of stonework around it and use it as another planting area!

After yard guy left, I moved a bit of yard art around.

And the dawrgums had to come out and investigate what had been going on in the yard! Noah didn’t hold still long enough for me to get a shot of him.

Mr. Man is content to find a sunny place to sit and relax.

Well, if you made it to the end, I will bid you a good weekend. Tomorrow I am going to one of my favorite conferences “Intersections:  Faith and the Arts” at Oak Hills Church in Folsom, CA.