Step Away from the Crabby Old Lady!

Good morning, people!  Its your lucky day.  I don’t post for a week, and now you get to listen to me complain.  That’s okay if you don’t want to read.  Click away to some happy little elf’s blog (Lemony Snickets movie reference.  I LOVE that movie, BTW.)

So this is the deal.  My work (do you call it ex-work when you’re retired?) offers a ‘healthy living plan,’ and if you fill out the form online and maybe do what they tell you to, they give you $100.  Good deal, huh?  Well, apparently I am going to have to be tortured for my $100.

Last week I filled out the form accurately.  They knew how much I exercised, what types of food I ate, and my height and weight.  And I was treated to their assessment that I was overweight and had an unhealthy BMI.  (insert me screaming here.)  And the BMI recommended that I weigh 98-132 pounds.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.  I treated them to a tongue lashing, telling them that they did not have enough information to make that assessment.  They did not ask about ANY weight loss history.  They did not know that I was currently maintaining an 80 pound weight loss after having lost 100 pounds.  and that to recommend such a thing could likely cause a person to REGAIN weight if they were to try to reach such a low weight.  Their information was outdated and poorly informed.  Of course, this is all on computer, and I am sure my response went into some great internet void, never to be seen by human eyes that give a crap.

So today I get an email from them to start my ‘healthy living adventure.’  Okay.  The $100 carrot is still dangling in front of my nose.  So I go through the check list.  Yawn.  Really?  I should keep a food journal?  THANK YOU for that bit of advice.  Oh?  I can ‘eat more and weigh less?  Whoopee.  That sounds great!   But I keep playing along.  Let’s check the menu for day one.  Wow, at first glance it looks a little skimpy.  Only 3 meals and one 100 cal snack.  But wait!  There’s more.  The lunch menu sounds vaguely familiar–shrimp over avocado salsa (my shrimp ceviche.)  Oh, but they have you eat it with TWO slices of french bread.  And they have you eat dinner over TWO cups of couscous.  Breakfast was an egg white SANDWICH.  Evidently these people haven’t read “Wheat Belly.”

Ah well.  I know they are well meaning.  Stay tuned to see if I win my $100.  I think I’ll spend it all on TOO MUCH FOOD.

I’m just tired of this stuff right now.  I’m tired of counting calories in my brain (I swear, there are  neuropathways devoted specifically to this chore.  I can’t NOT count calories.)  I’m tired of food and body image being a constant buzz in the back of my mind.  Its irritating.  Its even unimportant.  “Life is a vapor.”

In other news.  Oh, I don’t have any other news.  How about some pretty pictures?

I’ve been quilting like crazy.  I LOVE the saying on this quilt.  I think you can click on the picture so you can see a bigger picture.  I’m not crazy about the composition of the quilt.  But that’s exactly what that verse is about.  So it seems perfect to me.  I’m still blogging about my quilting on my other blog.  I probably will blog later today over there, because I have a plan to go to the gym this morning  for a change.

The scene after I am done with my morning reading.  I noticed afterwards my kindle on one arm of the chair, and ‘real’ books on the other.  I still like real books, and I like writing in a paper journal.   The dogs are always happy when I am done sitting there.  Its too crowded when I try to sit in their chair.

Mmm.  My latest breakfast obsession.  I told you I really love that Abundance brand of oatmeal, only its not just oatmeal, its multi-grain.  I love that it is so easy (microwave) and still has texture and tastes delicious. I usually add a few walnuts and raisins or cranberries.  Then after last week’s post about eating more vegetables, I thought about how I could add veggies to breakfast.  So I just shredded some zucchini and put a little in the dish with the oatmeal and water.  It is just right in the 2 minutes it cooks in the microwave.  Adds a nice texture.  And that shredded zucchini keeps very well in the refrigerator.  I’ve been using it all week!

Thanks for listening.  I feel better now.  I’ll feel even better after spending an hour at the gym, lifting weights and riding the bike while watching the food network.  Oh, and then I’ll feel EVEN BETTER after a Starbuck’s coffee with my favorite Quest bar with 20 grams of protein.  I might feel better after my turkey burger that I have planned for lunch.  Or after I take Noah for a quick walk this afternoon.  Maybe I’ll write a blog post tonight from the Cheerful Old Lady!

Eat Your Fruits and Veggies…and Other Stuff

I recently re-subscribed to the Nutrition Action Healthletter.  To thank me, they sent me a nifty little booklet with a rating system for fruits and veggies, and a few other foods.  Interesting.  Guess what vegetable was at the top of their list (rating fiber, potassium, vitamin C, Lutein, and vitamin K.)  Kale!  I gotta try that stuff again!  Spinach was right below it, and guess what!  Canned pumpkin was way up there at the top of the list!  Romaine lettuce had a surprisingly high score–above butternut squash and tomatoes and asparagus.  And believe it or not, a potato with skin was above my beloved beets!

Then on the fruit list, guava was far and away the highest scorer (scoring fiber, folate, potassium, vitamin C, and carotenoids.)  Never had one.  Guess which one was second.  Watermelon!  Wow.  I be eating a little more watermelon this summer.  Plus, it only has 80 calories per two cups diced.  Orange, strawberries, mango (my latest love) and pineapple were all high on the list.  They were all above the mighty apple.  Hmmm.  Oh, and blueberries were farther down the list. Raspberries and blackberries had a considerable higher score than blueberries.  All this just served to remind me to stock up on a variety of fruits and vegetables, and to try to get more of them into my daily food choices, especially the vegetables.

About the same time I checked Georgie’s blog, and she had a most excellent article on ‘losing weight on a vegetarian diet.‘  But it was just a very balanced overall view of the best way to eat.  And she had that reminder in there to have fruits and vegetables filling half your plate!  Well, I’m not there yet.  But I’m trying.  This week I’ve had apple, orange, mango, strawberries, and pear.  On the veggie side, I’ve had green beans, asparagus, artichoke, brussel sprouts, beets, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots.

On to other stuff.  Well, truth is, not much other stuff to report.  I’ve had a very uneven week of eating, starting with the ‘super bowl of dog shows’ last week.  One day, I eat just ‘perfect,’ and the next I overeat a bit.  I do not like it when I overeat.  Sunday I took a quick trip to the bay area to visit my mom.  And of course I ate too much.  But that I expect.  I did visit a farmer’s market, and paid $6/pound(???) for some brussel sprouts.  Good grief people.  Good luck on that farm.  Personally, I do not think that is sustainable.  They were good though.  Of course, the trouble with farmer’s markets is THE OTHER STUFF.  I also got a giant chocolate chip cookie, and some kettle corn, which I shared with my mom.

On to good news.  I am continuing to be very consistently active.  I am very happy with that.  Getting to the gym 3X/week to work out on the weights, and if there is time, I do a little bit on the stationary bike.  Working out consistently, I have been able to increase some of the weights I am using.

The other day I was grousing about how I had overeaten the day before, and that famous line from “City Slickers” came back to me–“today is a do over.”  I don’t have to get stuck in that mode of overeating and making poor choices.  I can just start from today and get it right.  I think that is a key to continuing on a healthy life of good food and exercise.  It made me feel better, anyway.

I have been doing a lot of quilting, and having fun blogging about it.  I’ve also been knitting more than usual, thanks to Shelley’s inspiration!

And now, I have to get a going, because it is ‘sewing day,’ and I am going to stop at the gym before I head over to join my friends for a day of sewing and quilting together.

The Super Bowl for Dog Lovers!

Okay, first let’s establish how much I DON’T know about football.  Just now, when I started typing the title up there, I couldn’t remember the term super bowl, and I had to google “biggest football game” to get the name.  Also, the day after the super bowl, after I saw Helen’s blog with her NY Giants posters, I said to my BFF, I thought the Giants were from San Francisco, I guess they got traded to New York?  And she said, “The SF Giants play baseball.”  Oh.

Anyway, on to something I DO know about!  Westminster Kennel Club is definitely the Super Bowl of dog shows!  All of the top winning dogs from all over the country are there, competing to see who is the very best dog in the country.  That’s the theory anyway.  By the nature of what it is, the judging of dog shows is somewhat subjective.  And I hate to disillusion you all, but there are also a wee bit of politics involved from time to time.

If any of you don’t know or don’t remember every detail of my life, I showed dogs for over 15 years, so I know of which I speak.  But I won’t bore you with too much doggie talk.  After all, we here in this corner of the blog world know what the Super Bowl is REALLY all about.  Yes, that’s right!  Its ALL about the food.  And as I planned the food for this annual get together with my neighbors, I realized that this was MY super bowl.  And its for TWO nights, not just one!

So, yes, with my plan, we had pizza and chips the first night.  We could have had them the second night, but I decided to try to rectify the situation just a little bit.  I was going to make this new recipe anyway, and if it turned out, I would bring it for dinner tonight.  It did, and I did.  Yumm!  I had downloaded that W.W. e-book–recipes on soups, stews, and chili, when it was free. I think Lori told us about that.  Anyway, I’d been eyeing a few of the crockpot recipes in there.  The one I chose was the Crockpot French Chicken Stew.  Full of a variety of fresh veggies and chicken, it was very flavorful, and a heck of a lot fewer calories than pizza for a second night.  Since it was Valentine’s Day, I wanted to make a special dessert.  I looked through all of my  bookmarked recipes, and then I started browsing Chocolate Covered Katie’s site, and i settled on her Hot Chocolate Cookies.  Holy yumm, these were really delicious.  Disclaimer here–Katie’s recipes are RELATIVELY healthy, but many of them are NOT without calories.  I followed the recipe for these cookies but the batter turned out thinner than described so I put it into little crocks to bake, which turned out perfect.  But like I said, quite a few calories.  Good for a one time special occasion though.

Back to the dog show.  At this show, the caliber of dogs being shown is so high, that almost any of the dogs in the final line up are worthy of winning best in show.  I am actually a closet Pekingese lover (my doggie friend says I am just attracted to all the mutant dogs–short legs of dachshunds, pushed in faces of pekes and pugs, the extreme stance of the german shepherd, the crazy haircuts of the Standard poodles, etc.)  In the best in show line-up, I liked almost all of the dogs.  My favorite was probably the Doberman Pinscher.  She was just so perfect on that night.

Man, I had a crazy day today!  I am working on the newsletter for The Bridge (Haiti project,) and I am a little intimidated by the process, but I am making progress slowly.  Once I get the first one done, I know it’ll be easier from then on.  Then, I had to make a decision about changing my health care plan.  This was really making me anxious.  But I made a call to just the right person (he is the ‘health care facilitator’ for my former employer) and evidently health care is his life!  He was so pleasant, and acted like he had all the time in the world to help me make a decision and understand what was going on.  It took all the anxiety out of the situation.  And let me just say that I KNOW how lucky I am to have good health care at a very low cost through my former employers.  VERY lucky.  But I was changing from a HMO to health insurance, and it seemed like it was going to be a lot more expensive.  Well, it is going to be more expensive if something bad happens.  But not as expensive as I thought.

Then I headed into the kitchen to do a massive cooking operation.  Made that crockpot recipe, which only had 15 different veggies, all chopped into pieces, and needed boneless  skinless chicken thighs.  And guess who bought thighs with the skin and the bone still on to save money?  NEVER AGAIN.  Plus I had a package of chicken breasts that I either needed to cook or freeze.  I decided to cook them because I really like having the pre-cooked meat for the days I am NOT in the mood to cook.  I also had some salmon, and so I  cooked that too.  Had a piece of it with a beet salad for lunch, and then headed to the gym. I KNOW.  I was a maniac today!  Got home in time to make that dessert recipe, sit and relax with my afternoon cup of coffee for a few minutes, and then took the dogs for a quick walk before heading to my neighbors for the dog show!  Whew.  I think I’ll sleep good tonight.

And tomorrow I will get up and go back to eating all my healthy choices, fitting in a few of the lower calorie ones to make up for the excesses of the past two days.

Did any of you watch the dog show?  Do you have any dog showing related questions that i can answer for you?

Heart Healthy Adventure!

So here’s my ‘heart healthy adventure on Saturday!  Thanks to Lori for sponsoring this challenge every year.  It is so fun to set a goal and then do it.  The first leg of my challenge was a 30 minute speed walk with Noah.  Here we are at the end of the walk.  I tried to keep my speed up so my heart would get that healthy challenge!

Next leg of the challenge–off to the gym for 30 minutes of weights and 30 minutes on the bike.  I usually aim for 20 minutes, and sometimes I skip the bike, so this was a challenge!

This is how I start my workout many days, in the little studio on the bosu ball(?) working on my balance while doing dumbell presses.  BTW, do I get extra credit for posting all these unflattering pics of myself?

Then out to the main room to work on the machines.  Ah, my favorite machine, better known as the camouflage machine!

Then I headed downstairs for the third leg of my challenge–30 minutes on the bike.  I ALWAYS watch the Food Network while I’m on the bike.  I found a new show yesterday–Worst Cooks in America.  Pretty fun.

Ahhh.  Then it was on to the ‘fourth leg’ of the ‘challenge.’  FROYO!!  And yes, there were a few unhealthy toppings on there.  Oh well.

Back home, we all went for one more walk.   I can’t claim that there was anything terribly cardio about this walk, but Monk might beg to differ.

And yes, as Lori said in her blog, I was a little extra snacky today.  Don’t know if it was the exercise or just a little celebrating.  Its all good, as Monk would say.

Exercise After a Minor Injury and Other Stuff

Exercise after injury:  I have been very pleased with my progress and thought I would share my thoughts with you.  The ‘minor injuries’ were my hands after the two hand surgeries, and my knee, after I did whatever it was I did while trying to run.

My hand strength was decreased, and my wrists were weak after the surgery had healed and it was okay to go back to weight lifting.  Plus, even though the doctor said it was okay, I sure didn’t want to mess something up inside there!  So I just started out with much lower weights than I had previously been doing, and increased the reps.  When I normally would do 3 sets of 10 reps at 80-100 pounds, I now did 3 sets of 15 reps at 60 pounds.  Some of the exercises that required me to really grip with my hands I just deleted for a while.  Now, with the surgeries 3 months behind me, I am almost back up to my previous weights and am able to do all the machines that I had been doing.

For my knee, I basically did the same thing.  I decreased the distance I was walking, but took more walks during the day.  I backed off on the weights and increased the reps again.  I made sure to do two of the machines I liked the least every time I was at the gym, because they would increase the muscle strength above and below my knees and support them.  They are the ‘hamstring curl’ and the ‘seated leg extension,’ again with the lower weights and increased reps.

New version of an old recipe:  Not sure what to call this–Blueberry Scone Cake?  Whatever, it was quite satisfying, and I will be adding it to the rotation.  The idea came from a couple of different factors.  1–those frozen blueberries staring at me as I opened the freezer each day.  2–I could make scones, but I was feeling lazy.  And 3–I have a lot of different types of ‘flour’ and I would like to find a way to use them that I like.  One of those being the coconut flour, which I have not enjoyed so far.  That was bugging me.  Because I DO like coconut.  For the lazy part, I wanted to try making them in one unit instead of separate scones.

So I started with my basic scone recipe.  I replace the two cups of flour with 1 cup spelt flour, 1/2 cup of chickpea flour, and 1/2 cup coconut flour.  I knew I might have to adjust the liquid for those last two flours.  The rest of the recipe I used exactly as is.  I mixed up the dry ingredients, and then added the wet.  The yogurt I used was NOT thick yogurt, and I added the whole cup of almond milk.  And then I let it set for about 10 minutes to see if the flours soaked up the liquid and became too thick.  The batter looked just about right.  Still thick, but a little stickier than when I make my scones.  I plopped half the batter in the pie pan, spread it around evenly, and then put 2 cups of thawed blueberries on top (if you tried to mix frozen blueberries with such a thick dough, you’d just get a messy blue dough,) and then topped it with spoonfuls of the remaining batter, which I tried to spread evenly over the top.  (I did not top with melted butter and sugar like I do my scones.)  Then I baked it.  And here’s where I need to do a little more investigative work before I publish this as a recipe.  I kinda knew better, but I just set the oven for the same temperature and the same time as the scones.  It was not done.  Five more minutes and it looked done, so i took it out.  30 minutes later as I tried to cut myself a slice, it was not done.  back in the oven at a lower temperature for more time.  I think it should probably be cooked at a lower temperature (350-375) for about 30 minutes or so.  Anyway, it did get done, and it was quite tasty and very satisfying to me.  As all low-fat cooking goes, the texture is different (denser?) than normal baked goods.  But I like that.  Plus I was really pleased that I included a good amount of these other flours and succeeded at baking something that I am not going to throw out!

Product review:  The Magic Bullet.  As you all know, Magic Bullet did not give me anything free.  This is just my opinion.  I am a little disappointed in my Magic Bullet.  It does not pulverize ice cubes or frozen fruit nearly as well or as quickly as it likes to claim.  It does a terrible job of ‘chopping’ fresh fruit.  In fact, I ran back out to my back porch and rescued my Cuisinart mini-food processor that was on its way to the thrift store.  I do like the convenience of the Magic Jack, being able to make a smoothie and then drink it in the same cup.  I will probably get more use out of it during the warmer weather.  Maybe my skills at using it will improve.  What I do LOVE about it is that it works great as a coffee grinder!  I had long ago stopped grinding my own beans.  I love how it grinds the beans evenly and then I can just keep those in the same cup for the next couple of days.  All in all, I’m happy I got it.  But I’m VERY HAPPY that I did not give my mini food processor away!

Magic Jack.  Does anyone else have one of these little doohickies?  I’ve heard about it for years.  Lately its been bugging the daylights out of me, how much I am paying for various phone services, and the service is not even as good as it was in the olden days.  So I finally decided to try it–its supposed to have a money back guarantee.  $39.95 is all it costs you for a whole year of local and long distance unlimited calling.  You plug it into your computer and make your calls through there.  You still use your regular phones.  So far I think its great.  Your computer has to be on to receive calls, but I leave my computer on all the time.  The calls are crystal clear, and there is not the time delay that I seemed to be having with my long distance server.  I did have to change my phone number.  I chose to pay $3.00 to choose a number that I liked.   But you are supposed to be able to keep your old number–probably that works in larger towns.

Well, its another bright and sunny day here, with a high of 68 degrees predicted.  I am going to make myself get in the pool today!  Saturday I will be doing Lori’s Heart Healthy challenge–I am going to do 30 minutes on the bike at the gym and 30 minutes in the weight room–just a little more than I usually do now.  Plus I might end with 30 minutes in the pool–not guaranteeing that one!  I will also get in two 30 minute walks with the doggies–one Monk-speed (slow) and one fast, with just Noah.

And One More Thing…

I meant to mention in the previous post about something that has been more helpful than I previously thought.  I do think I have mentioned it before, but since I’ve been thinking about it recently, it bears mentioning again.  And that is the surprising help I got from using the workbook “Do you use food to cope?”

I grew up as the firstborn child.  And I don’t know if it was that, or just my inborn personality type, but it was important to me to be calm and in control.  When I made myself use this workbook (yes, I had to MAKE myself fill in the blanks, and think about the questions they were asking,) I realized that there were situations in my childhood that were out of my control, and made me very anxious, and that is when I turned to food.

Since then, I have said “I am anxious” more times than I ever did in my entire life before doing the workbook!  But what I have been most aware of recently is that I identify being anxious about a certain situation or event, but there is NO thought at all of wanting to eat anything.  I think that is because the eating was about denying or avoiding the anxiety.  Now that I identlfy it, there is no need to eat.  How about that?  I posted about my workbook experiences here and here.

That’s all.  Maybe along the same lines, one of our ‘own,’ a blogger, has come out with a new book where he evidently talks a lot about the mental aspect of losing weight–Transformation Road, by Sean Anderson.  Thanks for mentioning it, Jane!  I went ahead and ordered it on my Kindle and I will get it downloaded on my Starbuck’s trip this afternoon!  Loretta wrote a really good review of it here.  I am looking forward to reading it.

 

Not Perfect

Hello all!  Thanks for the kind comments on my new quilting blog!  I have enjoyed taking pics and ‘talking’ quilts, and hope to keep it up. At the same time, I find myself with less and less to say on the topic of weight loss, or even weight maintenance.  But in the interest of possibly helping someone by giving you an inside look at the life of someone who lost 100 pounds starting seven years ago, and is still maintaining 80 pounds of that loss, here goes.  Whew.  That was a sentence and a half!

So, I’ve been following that Bobay plan, which is basically a carb cycling type of plan, higher in protein than I had been eating (about 100-120 grams of protein/day.)  It is also a relatively low fat diet.  I am very comfortable eating low fat.  What I found was that increasing my protein decreased my appetite, and kept my mind off of food for the most part.  But I was becoming uncomfortable eating that much protein, especially meat.  And since I don’t like eggs that much, and don’t like beans, meat plays a major roll in my protein intake. Several nights last week I just did not want to eat my planned meal of meat and veggies.  One night I substituted my Breakfast Clafouti, which was still very high in protein.  And another night I just had some Baked Oatmeal.  So I have learned from this plan.  I will increase my protein intake.  But I will also listen to my body’s needs, and adjust accordingly.

Also in the last couple of weeks I’ve eaten a few things that –well, wait.  I want to say that I try hard NOT to talk about foods that might be triggers for some people.  I have a hard time sometimes just reading descriptions of baked goods, much less looking at pictures of them.  So I will substitute BG for whatever specific baked good I am talking about and maybe that won’t bother you.  I just wanted to say that after all this time of changing my eating habits, I still have those times when I wander into the BG aisle.  And I saw this particular BG at Trader Joe’s several weeks ago.  I left it there.  On the next trip, I saw it again.  Put it down.  And then just before I left the store, I went back and put it in my cart.  And here’s the worst part of it.  It wasn’t that good.  REALLY.  It just was not.  So then I ate parts of all four pieces of BG to make sure it was not that good before I threw it away. And then the next week at my local grocery store, I picked up the cheap version of this particular BG, and I ate that.  And THAT was actually what I had been wanting.  Aaaarrrgh.   I’ve passed up those cheap BG for YEARS now.

For my birthday 2 months ago, my sister gave me a little kit that included a miniature cast iron skillet, and the ingredients to make one of my old favorite BGs.  So you see I left it alone for 2 months.  But I thought, I’m going to eat very carefully today, so I can fix that BG and have it and still be within my calorie range.  And so I did that.  Thank goodness for protein!  I came in at 1500 calories, including the BG.  But guess what?  That kit was stale or something, and it was NOT WORTHY.  I ate half of it to make sure it was not worthy before I threw it out.

Going to town and food:  I have gone to the big city two times this week.  Friday I went with an old friend, and we planned to eat lunch out.  I was really looking forward to it.  We went to BJ’s, and they have now included their calories on most of their menu items.  Wow.  So we ended up getting the half flat bread pizza and a small salad, 550 calories total.  Very satisfying.  And we stopped for a small pinkberry froyo with no toppings, 150 calories.  Very good.

Today I went back to the same city.  This time I was visiting Whole Foods.  And guess what I chose from their food bar?  One BBQ’d chicken breast!  Go me.  I also got one BG to bring home.  A better version of the one that I had made in the cast iron skillet the night before.  Do you see a pattern here?  Whether I plan for a treat or I splurge on a treat, if it is not worthy, I feel cheated.

However, a good thing  has happened.  I am losing my fear of the BG.  They don’t derail me from my normal healthy preferred way of eating.  They don’t have any more magical power over me.  The next day I go back to eating ‘on plan,’ and it is usually a lower calorie day.

Anyway, I just wanted to share all this–I am still a work in progress.  I have noticed also that I have this underlying feeling some days of ‘being bad,’ or ‘a failure.’  And when I go back and review what I have eaten, there is nothing wrong with it.  It seems just that I thought a lot about various things that I could buy or could eat, but I didn’t.  Weird.  Something else to keep working on.

I am still quite enamoured of the Quest protein bars.  I was chatting with the owner of the shop where I get them, and he has an online store and does quite a bit of business through it.  I checked the Quest Bars, and they are cheaper from him than anywhere else I have seen them.  His store is Get Ripped Nutrition.  Haha.  I laugh every time pudgy middle aged me walks into the ‘Get Ripped’ store.

I am reading/skimming Linda Bacon’s book, Health at Every Size.  As I have said on this blog before, I don’t actually think you can be healthy at EVERY size.  When you are young, you probably can be healthy at any size, but eventually extreme excess weight will catch up with you.  At the same time, I do think that many many people are not going to fit into that perfect BMI category and they ARE very healthy.  She has an awful lot of scientific research in her book, most of which I’ve heard before, which is why I am skimming parts of it.  This whole concept of your body knowing what size it should be and allowing it to settle at that weight puzzles me.  So does that mean that I was MEANT TO weight 257 pounds?  Cause that’s where I stayed very consistently for many many years. Or does that mean I broke my body’s regulatory systems and ended up there by default?  Its a puzzlement…  I got the book cause it was so cheap on Kindle.

I’ve been very happy that I have continued with my wanting to be active.  It seems that that little statement that I stuck in there–“If being a little heavier is part of this, so be it.”— has been very important. I do not hesitate to go to the gym just because I think my weight is up that day, or I am ‘feeling’ fat, or I think I look frumpy.  I go happily and proudly to the gym as a fat frumpy super strong short old lady.  I am mostly happy with what I see in the mirror.  I hope this part of my process sticks!

So there you have it.  Just a ramble about what long term weight loss maintenance looks like.  Its not perfect.

New Quilt Blog!

Well, I started it so all of you would not be subject to endless rambling about all things quilt, but in case any of you are interested, here’s the new blog–hey, I almost had to start it.  They still had the domain name debbyquilts available!

debby quilts