My Saturday routine

Reflection in still water at Lake Padden

Ahhh... it feels so nice to be back in my old routine. First, a quick trip to the coffee shop with Lily this morning to greet our friends there, before heading off to Lake Padden for our two-times-around walk. It was nice to see everybody again, and just for a minute, it seemed like Florida didn't even happen. But as I said before, just the chance to get away gives me the ability to appreciate my surroundings with new eyes.

I had a great time with my sister and nephew, along with their two dogs. I really miss them, if I give myself a chance to go there in my mind. But the beauty of Lake Padden this morning, walking in mild temperatures without the normal rain, was healing to my heart and soul. It's lovely to have traveled there, and it's lovely to come home.

And I didn't get sick! Usually, when I travel I pick up a bug because of the stress of travel. This time, I can safely say, "so far, so good." I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow, and I'll happily enjoy it. After the nine-mile hike on Thursday, my right hip has been bothering me. Each day, however, it has felt a little bit better, and it wasn't an issue at all today. All is well.

Other than the couple pounds I brought back from Florida, I'm doing just fine. If I haven't lost them by the first of February, I'll think about restricting my diet. Otherwise, the ice cream habit I acquired might continue for a bit longer.
:-)

Type 2 diabetes is not inevitable

He's lost a few pounds

My sister's son Peter, my nephew, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes a few months ago and told in no uncertain terms that he needed to start taking medication immediately. He was in pretty bad health and had gained weight, although he worked out hard. His workouts were mostly in the form of construction jobs, out in the hot sun and during long days of maximum effort.

Instead of starting medication, however, he decided to lose weight and began curtailing his calories, with plenty of motivation to keep going. He simply didn't want to start down that path of taking medication for one thing and then another to counter the side effects of the first. His blood sugar was off the charts, but once he started losing weight, although it was really hard at first, it took very little time before he started to notice a difference. In fact, he said he didn't realize how bad he was feeling until he starting getting better. His last visit to the doctor shows that all his numbers were normal, no diabetes at all.

And then the other day I saw this heart-tugging video, which is about a man, Eric, who had Type 2 diabetes and was expected to die of his illness, until he adopted a rescue dog that simply changed his entire life. I began to realize that there are other options to medication, not easy ones, but still.


I have watched and shared this video several times, and every time I see it I cry a few tears of happiness. Anyone who has ever loved a critter will see themselves in Eric. Enjoy!
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Weight, weight, don't tell me

Last week's attempt at losing weight

You know, it's never over, when you want to keep to what you consider to be your ideal weight, and life gets in the way. It's not like I can stay away from food, or if I would even want to, so every day it's a struggle to keep myself from overeating.

My latest problem started after I returned from my trip to southern California. I was not weighing myself, and I'd been busy with skydiving and eating whatever I wanted while there. That included beer, pizza, and pasta. When I returned home, I began to eat my normal diet, but I wasn't willing to get on the scales. I also noticed that I didn't feel quite satisfied, and I craved more variety. Lulled into complacency by having maintained my ideal weight for a couple of years, I figured it would be a simple matter to lose any extra pounds and get back on track.

No, I just didn't want to get on those scales, as I noticed my clothes beginning to fit a bit tighter. On one of my Saturday morning walks, a conversation with a friend who inquired about whether I'd been able to keep the weight off (she was celebrating a full year after having lost thirty pounds), and I confessed that I had been backsliding and was unwilling to weigh myself. She said she learned that weighing oneself every day was the only sure way to maintain weight loss.

Okay. After that conversation, I got on the scales the next morning and found that I had gained four pounds. Well, that won't be hard to lose, I thought to myself. I went into my handy "Lose It!" app that I use to track my calorie consumption and confessed I had four pounds to lose. The app immediately cut 250 calories out of my daily ration, and I tried to keep inside those bounds. You can see, above, that I was unsuccessful last week, at least.

The week before I was also under curtailed calories, but I realized I hadn't been honest with the record of what I had eaten. Forgotten were the things that entered my mouth between meals, and portion sizes had increased but what I recorded was the same as before. I decided last week to get real, and as you can see, I was over every day, except Thursday when I exercise enough that I get to eat an extra 1,000 calories. 

This post is to give myself yet another boost to lose those extra four pounds. I thought it would be easy, but again I must change my attitude and think of it in terms of a lifetime of vigilance. I really like being thinner and don't want to go back to wearing those extra sixteen pounds again!

:-)

Diet, exercise, and Blogger

Treadmills at the Y

Those of you who have been following me for awhile know that I am addicted to exercise. Five years ago, I retired from working every day, and we moved from Colorado to Washington State. And now instead of working, I work out on an almost daily basis. It's not like I didn't exercise before, but it was not the center of my day. Today, it is. I wake in the morning, have breakfast, dress and take the bus to town. After a leisurely latte at the coffee shop, I leave fifteen minutes before my class starts, walk to the Y, change into exercise clothes, and make it to class by 9:00am.

Exercise class, instructor Joanne on the right

I see the same people there every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Another Tuesday-Thursday class is also held at 9:00am, and I'm there on Tuesdays but hike with the Trailblazers on Thursdays. I wrote a blog post back in 2009 where I talked about seeing all the overweight people here in the Pacific Northwest and how different it seemed from Boulder. (I just re-read that link and was pleasantly surprised to find it is still relevant and interesting.)

What triggered this post was a recent visit to the mall and again noticing all the really overweight people in the Food Court. Notice in the above picture, not one person is overweight. The thing we all have in common is consistent exercise. I have had a lifelong struggle with my weight, as some of you know. I wrote a post here about having gained ten pounds in 2011, which was brought home to me at my annual doctor visit. They weigh you every time you come in, and I had been avoiding the scales at home, because I knew I had put on weight and wasn't ready to acknowledge how much.

I read a very good book about Mindless Eating in April of that year, and then I read The End of Overeating. Little by little I was able to lose that extra weight; in fact, I lost more than my goal weight. But I knew I had to maintain it, and that is always the hard part. My sister Norma Jean introduced me to Lose It!, an app available for the web or a smartphone, and I use it religiously. It has helped me know how much I'm actually putting in my body every day.

On another note, a couple of blogging buddies have wondered what those of us dependent on Blogger's Reader are intending to do when the first of July comes and it goes away. I tried Feedly and then The Old Reader, and I am very very happy with the second one. It's really easy to use, and I was able to import all the blogs I follow into it without any trouble. In fact, I like it much better than the one that is being discontinued. It was created when Reader was changed a while back and people preferred the old version, and here it is. There's no advertising or annoying ads, either. Let me know if you've found any other solutions in your comments, so others can know what else might be available.
:-)

One more birthday gift

Taken by Theresa, our excellent waitperson

I received a $20 off coupon in an email from Anthony's Restaurant, where we have celebrated various birthdays before. It needed to be used during my birthday month, December, so off we headed last night to Anthony's to enjoy a four-course meal. Although I didn't really want to eat that much, I figured it was such a good deal (appetizer, salad, entree, dessert) that I couldn't pass it up, just $19.95 for the entire thing. Fortunately for me, I was able to eat a few bites of the incredible crème brûlée and leave the rest.

I had the choice of a shrimp cocktail or another appetizer (I chose the cocktail), three different salads (the bleu cheese salad was delicious), several entrees (rainbow trout was my choice), and that luscious dessert or ice cream (how could I pass up such an elegant dessert for pedestrian ice cream?). It was a wonderful meal and I enjoyed myself immensely. Today, however, I am feeling just the tiniest bit of guilt for my overindulgence. I'm remembering the good time we had instead.

I guess I've milked this special birthday for all I can, and now it's time to settle in to becoming an exuberant septuagenarian. The years go by so quickly these days that it won't be very long before I'm looking back at the decade and wondering where it went! What wonders lie around the next corners of time? Hopefully I'll find out...
:-)

Rain, wind and a walk

 

This is the view looking south from my front porch. Although it's not easy to tell from this picture, it's raining. It's been pouring now for a couple of hours, but early this morning I went out with the Fairhaven walkers (there were more than a dozen of us) all bundled up in the cold, expecting it to rain, but it didn't. In the most amazing timing ever, as I walked back to my car after our six-mile walk and well deserved coffee klatch afterwards, the rain began spattering my windshield. I wouldn't have gone this morning if the rain had already reached us. Satellite images were clear, showing the rain several hours out.

I love this group of walkers, led by Cindy. We meet at 8:00am every Saturday, rain or shine, at a place she chooses. She reminds us where we are going by email a day or two beforehand. The only time she cancels this walk is if it's icy and the footing might not be good. Most of the trails are around Bellingham, and I've been introduced to many of the beautiful places that are tucked away out of sight, some of them just a quick turn into woods from city streets. You just have to know the town as well as Cindy does.  I first joined this group on the only time each year she starts the walks at 9:00am: New Years Day. On the first day of the year, several of the long-time walkers bring food, and Cindy provides coffee and hot chocolate. Here's a post about my first visit with these friends; I realized when I started writing this that it's been almost two years now since that day.

Many times during the summer I'm out skydiving with my friends in Snohomish on Saturdays, so I miss this walk, but usually I try to get my knees in the breeze on Sundays so I can join them for a four- to six-mile walk at a brisk pace. Cindy was a world class race walker years ago, and she moves her tiny little body so fast across the ground that it seems like she's standing still, zipping from the front of the group to the back time and again with her dog Luna. Today we went up some very steep hills and down again, with the trail covered with damp leaves that had recently fallen from the trees. So many of the trails are in deeply forested woodlands. When we moved here, we knew about the nearby mountains and Bellingham Bay, but these numerous urban trails were a happy surprise. Two of my Senior Trailblazers told me about this group of (mostly) women and their dogs on leash, if they choose to bring them. Today we had fourteen walkers and three dogs.

Just a quick aside before I sign off: it's been almost three weeks since I've been wheat free (and free of any added sugar) and I notice one interesting side effect: my stomach is getting flatter and my waist is beginning to reappear. And here I thought it was gone forever! Is it possible that wheat can really cause that? I haven't lost any more weight and just want to keep what I've lost from creeping back up during the winter months. I remember once long ago seeing a cartoon showing the three shapes a woman can expect to have in life, using keys on the typewriter:

) (    Young babe
|  |    Premenopausal but no longer young
(  )   Postmenopausal old lady

Maybe it's not always true!
:-)

Fall food choices

Buy from Amazon here

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote on my other blog about a book that was recommended by my friend TechnoBabe, called Wheat Belly, written by a cardiologist who felt compelled to expose what he calls the reason for the massive increases in obesity and overweight in Americans over the past few decades. Nobody who pays attention to these kinds of things could fail to notice the growing numbers of really really fat people. I sure see it here in Bellingham, whereas in Boulder I rarely saw people on the street as fat as those I see around here. Of course, part of the reason for that might be linked to the winters in the Pacific Northwest: long stretches of rainy days with little to no sun.

Whatever the true reason for the increase in our waistlines, I decided to buy the book. I actually downloaded it onto my iPad2 so that I could support our local independent bookstore. (This was my first and possibly last electronic book; I really like to peruse and flip through pages that I've read without a lot of bother. Plus this book had notes in each chapter and I could not easily look them up.) I read it avidly and agreed with many things he had to say about wheat. Basically, the idea that wheat has become ubiquitous in our diets, in so many different products, is indisputable. His real premise, with which I agree, is that the wheat we ingest does not bear much resemblance to the "amber waves of grain" that we think of as wheat. It's been genetically modified in order to make it produce more at a lower cost, and all without any research on whether it is harmful to those of us who eat it. Here's a quote from p. 6, called "Wheat, the Unhealthy Whole Grain":

Of all the grains in the human diet, why only pick on wheat? Because wheat, by a considerable margin, is the dominant source of gluten protein in the human diet. Unless they're Euell Gibbons, most people don't eat much rye, barley, spelt, triticale, bulgur, kamut, or other less common gluten sources; wheat consumption overshadows consumption of other gluten-containing grains by more than a hundred to one. ... I focus on wheat because, in the vast majority of American diets, gluten exposure can be used interchangeably with wheat exposure. For that reason, I often use wheat to signify all gluten-containing grains.

Dr. Davis makes a great case for stopping the consumption of wheat. I tend to go along with what he says about it, as well as the observations he has made about all kinds of fructose sources (often hidden with esoteric sounding names) and their terrible consequences on the body when consumed in even small doses. And here I had started eating agave nectar, thinking I was doing good things for myself (not!).

Anyway, I did some research on other gluten-containing grains, such as rye, and I found out some very interesting information. For one thing, since rye has a much lower gluten content than wheat it is usually combined with wheat when used for making bread. I looked for straight rye breads and found that my local health food store does indeed carry some, but there's not much. It needs a sourdough starter if it doesn't contain any added sugars. A variety of pumpernickel is imported from Bavaria, although there is actually a 100% rye bread made locally that is hard as a rock. It's good, though, and I'm using rye as a replacement for the spelt bread I have grown so fond of at the Great Harvest Bread Company. Their spelt has lots of honey to make it rise, and I noticed that I would often crave the bread for its sweet content. One place that has lots of interesting facts about rye is Grindstone Bakery. I will continue to keep rye and brown rice in my diet, since I have no gluten issues. I asked the owner of the GHBC if they make spelt without added sugar, and he said they experimented with it, but it wasn't successful. It needs a fair amount of honey.

The reason for my endeavor into a wheat-free diet is to find out if cutting out wheat and all added sugars (other than from fresh fruit) will improve my cholesterol numbers. I was so convinced that I would be looking at great numbers after losing fifteen pounds and eating lots of healthy foods. I ate my spelt bread and sourdough wheat breads, occasional excursions into pizza when eating out with my friends, but otherwise not much wheat. I don't eat processed foods very often, but I am now thinking that I need to make an effort to keep my glycemic load to a minimum. I now check on this website (Diet and Fitness Today) to find the glycemic index and glycemic load of the various foods that I eat. In January I will again have my blood drawn to see if the numbers have improved. Oh yes, one more thing that I added: I started taking fish oil daily at my doctor's suggestion. Although I'm not going to be able to tell what might have changed my numbers, I'll know I'm on the right track if they go down. (My total cholesterol was 259, up 15 points from January of this year.)

Whew! This post got a lot longer than I wanted, but I'll stop here and release my readers to other endeavors. I do hope to hear from you about any ideas you might have about these steps I've taken.
:-)

Tree trimming

In the apartment complex where I live, some huge pine trees on the south end of the property were trimmed this past week. Our place (upstairs on the end) is shaded by these trees from the direct sunlight as it moves overhead from east to west. My birdies have been hanging out in the tree closest to us and speckling the walk to the downstairs apartment with, um, bird poop. Not to mention the amazing acrobatics the squirrels perform when jumping from our railing to the tree. It has all come to an end, with the tree now looking like this:

Not knowing what the tree trimmers would do, I was prepared for any eventuality from this sort of result to seeing the tree chopped completely down. I was actually quite pleased as I saw that these guys, who do it for a living, managed to keep the integrity of the tree while doing what was necessary. As they worked, I got on my new iPad2 and used Facetime to show my sister in Florida the operation while it was in progress. (Have I mentioned I LOVE my new toy?) The only really hard part was seeing the big branches weeping as if they had lost a limb. Oh, wait, they had; more than one, even!

The sap coming out of the poor chopped-off limbs looks a little like blood, doesn't it? The birds still come to my feeders in large numbers, so it hasn't stopped them. I do wonder if the tree feels it. When I woke this morning to the loud thud of a bigger-than-bird-sized creature on the porch, I saw a squirrel checking out the dropped feed for morsels. I peeked out the window to watch him. He had gained access to the porch by climbing up the side of the building, and I watched in amazement as he launched himself off to the branches... which weren't there! He landed with a loud whump on the stairs below and scampered up the tree in consternation. I don't think he'll try that again.

Since it's Saturday, I wandered off to the Farmers' Market after a walk in the light rain. A woman who comes to the market every Saturday was filling her basket with the latest fresh veggies from Rabbit Fields Farm, my favorite place to get some fresh produce myself. They always have people lined up waiting for the bell to ring so they can stock up for the week. The rain had stopped and the sun was breaking through the clouds as I was leaving. One vendor's treats made me realize it was getting close to noon. Instead of actually buying any of these, I took a picture of her mouth-watering treats and hung onto my money.

Do not enlarge if you are dieting

It was those lemon tarts that caught my eye and made me wrestle with myself before heading home to eat some nutritious and much less fattening food.
:-)

Mindless eating

I'm reading a fascinating book right now, called "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think." After having lost ten pounds over two months, I went off the reservation when I went to visit my family last week. I gained two pounds back in five days, although I was pretty careful with what I ate and didn't eat, there was so much more food around that what I usually have in my own environment that I know I ate more than I would have otherwise.

Smart Guy gifted me with this book, which he is also reading, and I'm absolutely astounded with what I am discovering about food and dieting. This cartoon illustrates the story of Brian Wansink's (the author of the book) research on why we eat more or less than we think we do. One of the studies he conducted involved college students who were seated at a table of four diners, but two of the 18-ounce bowls (which they agreed not to touch) were rigged with a hidden tube that kept the bowls filling back up. Although they didn't reach the original full mark, I'll let Wansink tell you what happened (p. 30):

People eating out of the normal soup bowls ate about 9 ounces of soup. This is just a little less than the size of a nondiluted Campbell's soup can (10.5 ounces). They thought they had eaten about 123 calories of soup, but, in fact, they had eaten 155. People eating out of the bottomless soup bowls ate and ate and ate. Most were still eating when we stopped them, 20 minutes after they began. The typical person ate around 15 ounces, but others ate more than a quart -- more than a quart! When one of these people was asked to comment on the soup, his reply was, "It's pretty good, and it's pretty filling." Sure it is. He had eaten almost three times as much as the guy sitting next to him.

The interesting thing to me is that most people didn't comment about feeling especially full, since they thought they had only consumed about a half bowl of soup. They had 62 people conduct this experiment, and every single one consistently underestimated the calories and the amount they had eaten. What he points out is that the visual cues we use to tell us when we are full are every bit as important to satiation as the actual amount we consume.

I'm in the middle of the book right now, but the main premise that I am excited about putting into practice is to find those mindless calories that I can stop consuming every day, thereby not needing to continue to diet to keep those favorite jeans fitting just right. He says that 100-200 calories every day can be cut out of one's daily diet without even noticing, using his techniques. This adds up to about ten pounds by the end of a year, but if I increase by the same number of calories every day, then I'll have gained that amount in a year's time. Slow but steady, either direction.

It took me those two months of measuring and calculating to find out how many calories I was actually eating. Now I know what 1800 calories looks like in the kinds of food I usually consume. I will continue to skip avocados and cheese, snack crackers and other kinds of comfort food that were way too available all day long in Texas with my family.

Now that I've lost most of the weight I originally wanted to lose, I think I'll try this method of weight maintenance and eventual loss to see if it works. I'll also continue to monitor my progress with the scales, since I finally broke the barrier that kept me from stepping on them and don't want to backslide. The link in the first paragraph takes you to information about the book, the author, and the entire premise behind why we eat more than we think we do.
:-)

Blustery day

Don't you just love some words? I love that word "blustery," which means something (or someone) characterized by strong winds. I woke last night to the sound of the wind, gusting right now to somewhere close to 50 mph. I almost didn't go on the usual Saturday morning walk with the Fairhaven walkers group because of it. I'm glad I went anyway, because although the first part of the six-mile loop was into the wind, the last part (pictured above) simply blew us right back to the Woods coffee shop.

That's Linda from the Senior Trailblazers with her dog Riley. Our leader, Cindy, is a former race walker who zips back and forth from the front to the back of the group of somewhere around a dozen of us. The pace is faster than I would be walking alone, somewhere around 15-minute miles, and it helps to complement the other exercise I get. Plus I knew I would be able to eat more food on my diet if I got this walk in. Keeping my metabolism up as I get older is something I work hard at.

I'm not sure when I'll be traveling to Florida to be with my sister during this time. Pete didn't want a funeral, but they will be having a celebration of his life on the 20th, with the possibility of Norma Jean traveling to Texas after that. The majority of our family lives there, and bringing her to them rather than having a huge inundation of family all at once makes more sense. I'm really wanting to do whatever I do for my sister, because I feel I made peace with Pete already. It hurts me to think of her being all alone, but her daughter and son are with her now, so that isn't an issue. It's later than I think I'll be needed. It's always a hard thing to figure out the details.

I just heard a wind gust that sounded very high, and after checking the weather I see we are under a wind advisory until 9:00 pm tonight. It's kind of scary; the winds here can be extreme. I thought I knew high winds in Colorado. As I look out onto the porch, the birds are hanging on the feeders as they swing back and forth. The birds are old hands at this, it seems.

Yesterday I had another ultrasound, this time to take a look at just the thyroid and its nodules. The blood work came back with my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) within the normal range, but definitely on the low end of normal, and now I suspect that the doctor will tell me they will just keep an eye on it. This technician (a woman this time) told me that almost half of all women have these nodules on their thyroid. I wonder why women are more prone to them and what they might mean.

Well, that's the news from my part of the universe. I am now heading downtown to listen to a free concert by the Interfaith Choirs. Our leader Al from the Senior Trailblazers told us about it; half a dozen or so choirs from different churches are giving this, something from each and then hundreds of voices together raised in song. He said he would have a solo but not to let that keep us away. It sounds uplifting, so I'm off to check it out!
:-)

Hospital food

From Now That's Nifty

I just read (link goes to ABC News) that Gabrielle Giffords has spoken; she asked for toast to be added to her breakfast. Her husband apparently has put this information on his Facebook page, along with the comment, "Gabby's appetite is back and – even though it's hospital food – she's enjoying three meals a day." The link under this picture of hospital food goes to a very interesting blog site displaying funny and nifty things from across the Internet. I found this picture there, and really, I do wonder about hospital food myself. Is it invariably terrible?

I was in Boulder Memorial Hospital for two days in 2005, and I can still remember the difference between the menu offerings and what I was presented. When you are supposed to get well from either illness or surgery, do they figure you won't have an appetite so they serve you this kind of food? The only thing on the plate above that I would be having on my own plate is the minuscule serving of broccoli, and I suspect it's overcooked. Wonder what that orange block is: sweet potato maybe? Surely that's chicken under the gravy. I remember ordering from the menu some "homemade stew with peas, carrots, and potatoes." What showed up was obviously from a can and everything in the little plastic bowl was incredibly unappetizing.

The link under the picture also takes you to scenes of hospital food from 11 different countries, and some of it looks pretty good. I guess it's not always terrible, but usually it is. Fortunately for Gabby, she's got family who must be helping and supplementing the hospital offerings, and, as I understand it, she's in the best facility in the country for brain injuries. Makes me wonder if there is a hospital somewhere known for having the best hospital food.

Oh, and I have to announce that I've lost another half pound as of this morning. In three weeks, it's been almost five pounds of weight loss, and I am now in the single digits of weight to lose. Giving myself plenty of time to get there, the real test will be to figure out, once I get to my goal weight, how to stay there. Having broken my taboo about getting on the scales, I now weigh at the same time every day when I go to the gym, just before showering.

Sometimes I realize how much less I'm actually consuming than I was before. I bought myself a food scale, and weighing out portions has been a real eye-opener. ("What?? THAT is 200 grams of potatoes? Is that all?") Where before I would open the fridge and unthinkingly take out a hard-boiled egg as a between-meal snack, now I count out 6 or 7 dried apricots and 24 almonds, put them into a baggie and carry them around as my snack allotment for the day. It really helps to have something to eat whenever I feel like it, except that when it's gone... well, tomorrow is another day.
:-)

The long slog toward slim

This picture was taken this month (January) on one of our snowshoe trips. One nice thing about winter is you can't really see all those extra pounds I gained in 2010. It's not that I don't exercise, as all of you who follow my blog know, but it's that other part, the intake, that seems to be the problem.

I got all excited once I started my calorie counting regime last week after having lost two whole pounds in the first four days. Another pound skated right off the scales in another two or three days. So, this morning after not having weighed myself since last Friday, I was so excited about getting on the scales after my workout. NO! I couldn't have GAINED a pound. Or could I? I've been diligent in logging my food intake and making sure I am in a 300-calorie deficit as I add everything up. It was disappointing, but I am pretty sure this is just part of the ups and downs (literally) of the game. There is a need to remember that I'm in this for the long haul. I was just jumping ahead, as usual. Sigh. It was probably a good thing for me to remember that several things can add or subtract from that total poundage. I've still got another eight pounds to lose for real.

I have noticed that my pants are very slightly less tight, but it's not anything making me ready to fling myself into my favorite jeans and be disappointed. I'll wait awhile. Becoming slim and getting rid of my muffin top are my goals, and they are totally within my reach if I just remember to take it slow, gear myself up for the long slog of counting calories and depriving myself of chocolate. For now, anyway.

Pete, August 2010

My brother-in-law Pete is very ill with Stage IV emphysema and was told this morning that there is nothing more that can be done to extend his life. My sister called me to let me know that he is being referred to Hospice and that she will call me when she wants me to come. If it were up to me, I'd head down to Florida tomorrow, but she has her hands full and doesn't need me to interfere. It's a very hard time ahead right now, and my heart is heavy not only because I love them both, but because we all must travel that path one day, and it really sucks to be the one left behind.

Last August I went to Virginia and spent a week with Pete, my sister, their daughter and my beautiful newborn grand niece, their first grandchild. It was a wonderful visit, and when we said goodbye, I wondered if I would see Pete again. Well, I believe I will, but maybe not on this side of the veil. Pete has been married to my sister for almost half a century, and I've known him most of my life. He was my first husband's best friend for years and years. If there is an afterlife, I know that he and Derald will be really happy to be together again.
:-[

Counting calories

Well, it's official. I did really gain those extra ten pounds over the last thirteen months since I was last at the doctor's office. And now that Dr Whitehead has given me a "prescription" to lose the extra weight before I see him next year, I'm thinking about exactly how to do that. Fortunately, I've got new tools on the Internet that were not available to me last time I went through this weight loss thing.

The beautiful 12-oz latte you see in the picture was today's "snack" consisting of skim milk and one shot of espresso (just under 100 calories). I have discovered the espresso is almost calorie free, and the skim milk is high in some nutrients I am just now discovering. After looking for a calorie counter on line that would help me log my food intake, I found an amazing website called Calorie Count. (This link should take you to the main site.) They also have a very interesting blog. If you look at the menu bar at the top of the blog, you'll find links to the food log and calorie counter that are helping me to understand the reason for my weight gain. Who knew that there are so many calories in almonds and walnuts? I realize now that a little handful of these raw nuts contains enough fat to keep my jeans tight all by themselves!

I was in denial about the weight gain at first, since I am pretty much of an obsessive exerciser, so after my workout at the Y yesterday I got on their upright scales. Oh. Although I weighed three pounds less, I was also unclothed. I always figure your regular clothes weigh about that much. I stood there and studied the number but it didn't change. No wonder my cholesterol numbers are high.

After registering on the Calorie Count website and entering my age, weight and activity level, I realized that I maintain my weight at about 1,800 calories a day. That's really not all that much food, and as I began to learn how to use the Food Log, I saw where some extra calories can be shaved off without too much pain or difficulty. That's what I'm telling myself after using the Log for two days now. It was quite a shock to realize that one slice of my favorite Great Harvest Bread (spelt) has 130 calories! Just one, with nothing on it!

The Food Log, once you have entered all the food you've eaten for the day and marked it complete, analyzes the breakdown of your diet, telling you where you are over or under in nutrients. I got an overall "A" for both days, but I discovered I am also low in dietary potassium and don't eat as many carbohydrates as I should. I got into that habit from following low carb diets for years. The problem with those diets is that they don't work if you eat more carbs than allowed. So, here goes an attempt at counting calories. I'll let you know about the results. It does help to have a doctor's "scrip" to lose weight.
:-)

Good news

Dr. Whitehead

I wasn't kidding when I said my new doctor looks fourteen, don't you think? And what a lucky gal I am, that I like him so much. He's smart, has a sense of humor and gave me a very thorough examination, asked all the right questions. I found out that he is actually 36. The older I get, the younger that seems, but he's very competent and likable.

The PeaceHealth Medical Group is also located in a bright and cheerful building, unlike the Center for Senior Health where I have been going for the past three years. It helps to have people of all ages in the waiting room, rather than everyone elderly like me!

We discussed my family history of heart disease and my cholesterol numbers. He was able to see the results from the past three checkups, as well as last Friday's numbers, which had increased since last year. I was all ready for him to tell me that I would need to take a stronger dose of statins, but no, he said the numbers were elevated a little from last year but not enough to cause much concern. I was flabbergasted. Although my numbers are higher, my good-to-bad cholesterol ratio puts me in the category of one-half normal risk for heart disease. It turns out that the culprit is likely to be the ten pounds I have gained since my last checkup, and he assured me that if I would lose them, I wouldn't need any further medication. That will give me incentive to lose the weight. I hope, anyway.

He does want to see what shape my coronary arteries are in, so I will have an ultrasound on Tuesday of the carotid arteries in my neck. He said that what the ultrasound shows for the carotids will give him a good indication of the condition of my coronary arteries. Sounds good to me, and it's the first time anyone has suggested this test. My son died at 40 of coronary artery disease, my father at 62, and my mother at 69. So he isn't taking this lightly, and I appreciate this thoroughness.

I knew I had gained weight; I was not thrilled about being weighed and never step on the scales when I know they will not show me good news, but I was surprised at how much more I weigh than I did last year. I am right at the cusp of overweight on the BMI (body mass index), at 24.8. If you want to figure your own, here is a good link to check out. It not only helps you figure it out, but it also tells you where you are in relation to others of your age and gender. I'm in the 25th percentile for women my age (meaning that three-quarters of others have a higher BMI than I do). That's heartening.

Here's a picture of the soup I had for lunch today, filled with kale, miso, tofu, some beans and some leftover forbidden rice. I learned about this rice from Arkansas Patti on The New Sixty. Smart Guy read about it and I came home to see this weird black stuff on the kitchen counter. Trust me, it's my latest favorite thing! Hoping that I will be able to lose these pounds, I am happily eating more soup and eating smaller portions. I'll let you know how I'm doing and can use any tips that my faithful readers might have. Getting enough exercise is not my problem, obviously.
:-)