A Hard Earned Victory

 I have not been able to wear this dress since 2002. Yes, 22 years ago.  It was around that time that I became a sandwich generation, mom.  I had my own family to take care of and I also started taking care of older family members who needed help too. Almost all of my self care time disappeared almost overnight.  

I lived on caffeine and fast food lunches.  I mastered eating at red lights in between appointments for everyone but me.  Slipping in grocery shopping just before school got out for Eric and just beating his bus home.  In 2009 I gave up artificial sweeteners and substituted Mexican Coke instead.  The pounds slowly creeped on.  Favorite dresses and other clothing items were put into the back of my closet.  

At one end I had school activities and fundraisers for both kids. I had activities for both kids at 2 different schools.  I needed to be there for both of them.  Eric had more medical issues and appointments.  More therapy to be done at home.  At the other end I had appointments to take elderly family members across town at the Veterans Administration Hospital and Doctors offices.  They needed help with shopping and errands.  They liked fast food lunches during the week because they missed going out to lunch.  Yes, that added weight on too. 

That slowly everything wound down to a different life after we lost the elderly relatives and Eric went to spend time with relatives who crossed over before him.  The year 2019  brought Covid 19 to the whole world.  The year 2020 brought 5 different surgeries for me. Then I spent time trying to recover my body and health.  

A doctor recommended the weight loss program A Pound of Cure.  Me being the skeptic bought the book and read it cover to cover before I made any commitments. Between myself and various family members we had failed at too many diets to count.  So before I even went to the doctor who wrote the book and ran the program I gave it a test drive to see if it really was possible and really worked.  After losing 30 pounds, I decided that the program worked and more importantly I could live with it.  So I made an appointment with the doctor.  I have continued to lose weight and inches.  Which brings me to last week.  I decided to try on some clothes to see if I had finally lost enough weight to fit into some of my favorites. Three dresses fit and were washed and added back to my wardrobe.  A lot more clothes were regulated to a pile for the consignment shop either because they were too big, yeah me, or had polyester or acrylic in them.  Somewhere between the time I bought them and the present day I became very sensitive to polyester and acrylic and can no longer wear them.  

Here is a picture from today in one of my new to my wardrobe rotation dresses  yes it is another driveway picture. It is an L.L.Bean regular size large. My daughter thought I had gotten rid of it a long time ago. I am so glad that I kept it.  By the way it was in the mid 50’s when we took the picture and I was freezing cold.  I am not a winter person. 

My Weight Loss Journey

 This will be a short and sweet blog with pictures of my weight loss journey. My before and yesterday’s pictures.  

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The second picture is an accidental picture of me. I was really taking a picture of the dresser and I just happened to be standing in front of the mirror. I know that the clarity of the picture is not the best. What is so different is my size. Yes, I am down 4 sizes as of right now. It is getting harder as I lose more weight, the rate of loss has almost stalled. Right now my body is doing the inches thing. The short dress that I am wearing just happens to be a shirt that use to come to just my hips.  It is one of the items that still fits from before.  It use ti fit like the gray top above. Now it is at my knees…

A New Algorithm

There is a new math algorithm that you math people might wanna know about. It involves weight loss and glasses. I have found that for every time I drop a pant size I need to go in and get my glasses readjusted or they fall off my face I haven’t worked out the exact formula, so if somebody would like to work on that, go for it. 

This led me on a while adventure yesterday. I went to Costco. Normally, Monday is a very quiet day at our local Costco, however, this being snowbird season, and I think we have a full stow bird season this year everything was turned upside down. The parking lot was a mess to say the least, when some of the drivers got confused, they just sat there and didn’t move leading to long lines of traffic waiting to park. Inside was just as crazy. I am so glad I brought my knitting with me. I stood there at knit while I was waiting for my turn to get my glasses adjusted , I must say the gal did a fantastic job on getting my glasses adjusted. They are staying right where they need to be. She even had to make the glasses narrower because I have lost inches in my face.

Then I did a little bit of shopping then I did a little bit of shopping. I picked up some of the things we needed for the house. Then I tried to look at the refrigerated meat section and the meat section it was total chaos. There were long lines waiting for the roasted chickens apparently by 12 thirtyish they had gone through two pallets of chickens. The concern was they only had one pallet left, and that was supposed to have lasted them through Wednesday when the next delivery came. Apparently they have not experienced a full snowbird season in quite a while. I gave up looking for the meat and decided it was time to leave. 

I found a very short line and a very courteous check out woman. Getting out of the store was another problem. I nearly got run over by a man using a scooter from Costco. He felt that since he was using the scooter, he did not have to wait in the line and was zipping in and out, and even managed to knock my cart. At least I wasn’t holding onto it at the time.

I was going to use the alternate route to get out of the Costco parking lot and go up to Ina but the road was closed due to construction. The bright side is I did not have to wait through 40 cars making right turns to get out of the parking lot.

John was wonderful and put everything away and then I went on my toys for to run. Target was running a fantastic sale as long as I didn’t come into the store and just ordered everything online. So I managed to fill up the back of my car using only 2/3 of my budget, it was so full it took three firemen to empty the back of my car. And then it was off buy groceries for dinner. By this time, I was exhausted after a full day, and was so glad that John made dinner.

Well, it is time to start my day again. I think it’s going to be very busy again everyone have a wonderful day.

Shopping from My Closet

 I have finally lost enough weight and inches to start shopping from my closet.  I can’t wait to see where that takes me.  What style trends can I start with clothing that I bought when my daughter graduated graduate school.  I now have more energy because of the weight loss and as a result I am doing yet another round of deep cleaning. 

Leaving this time are lace knitting patterns.  Those who know me are quite understandably happy. Quilting patterns. Also patterns for outfits that I will never make that are back in style.  Not to mention all the things that went into recycling. Did I mention that the Goodwill box is overflowing? Less is turning into more.  Less time to find things. More time to do things. More open space.    A win- win for me.  

This week I might even try my Lucet for the very first time.  A kind artist at the renaissance fair in Phoenix showed me how to do it. Now it is my turn to try it. My right hand is still wonky so wish me luck.

I got some bad food last Saturday and landed up with a mild case of food poisoning, but have finally fully recovered.  It was a rough couple of days.  We have all been there.  

TTFN

Losing It

 I lost 4 more pounds last month.  They tell me it’s perfectly normal and healthy for my weight loss to slow down after hitting the 20% mark.  I am just the impatient type and want things to go faster. This being said I will hold my course. 

In another area, I sat down with my Ashford E-Spinner3 this afternoon. I have to say from my personal perspective that it is much faster to spin yarn on a drop spindle than the e-spinner.  It took 2 solid hours to spin the yarn below.  I also don’t think that the yarn quality is better than a drop spindle or my double treadle spinning wheels.  I still am not sure what the hype is about.  I have made a personal commitment to spin 2, 4 ounce (100 grams) of a wool silk blend rovings that just happened to be with in reach. Then I will ply them.  Wish me luck. 

My personal favorite drop spindles come from Tom Golding, Krudent ( no longer available as new), Forester ( no longer available as new), Bosworth, Sherpard’s Woodworks, Gnomewood Creations, Akerworks and the ones my husband prints on his 3D printer that are only available at Grandmas Spinning Wheel in Tucson Az.  There are a wide variety of drop spindles in a wide array of price points and materials used. For a wide range of spinning options.  The lighter the drop spindle the finer the yarn will be. A 15 gram drop spindle will get you cobweb or very fine lace weight. A 1 to 2 ounce should get you around a worsted weight yarn. I use my heavier spindles for plying the yarn. 

Busy

 I was on a roll this afternoon.  I managed to free up a lot of shelf space. I am dropping a few books off at our little free library this weekend. I listed more books on my Ravelry library destash page.  I have about a foot stacked of magazines and books to list tomorrow. I am also organizing by craft and author. This has lead to finding a few duplicates in my collection.  Not a good thing.  I know after this wild first cut that I will be able to winnow my collection down some more.  I also have sock knitting DVDs that I will try to list somewhere, as my hands no longer like smaller knitting needles. 

I will be going through all my cd’s this weekend. If Bookman’s no longer takes them they will be going to Goodwill.  

I think all this extra energy is coming from losing a bunch of weight.  

Shopping Smaller

 Has anyone else ever noticed that when clothing goes on sale they always have many more options in the size you are not looking for? Yes, it was shopping for smaller size pants today.  So far it has seemed to hold that for every 5 percent weight loss from my original weight, I go down 1 pant size.  At least tops and dresses are much more flexible in sizes, so they get replaced less often.  Usually after about a 10% loss.

I guess I expected something a little different when I hit the 20% weight loss.  I was really not envisioning trudging through 2 different malls across town from each other trying on loads of pants and only coming home with 3 new pairs. Which means that I will be wearing more of my dresses and washing dark dress clothes more often.  In addition to being tired, sore and hungry.  

Let’s me explain the hungry part.  I no longer eat fast food.  That leaves out the mall food court.  In addition to that, I still do not eat indoors.  I always wear my mask inside.  I have yet to figure out a system where I can eat with my mask on.   So it was a quick packet of peanut butter and ice water in the car before I went shopping for dinner.  Yes, I keep a few packets of peanut butter in my purse for things like today.  Then it was home for a very late lunch.    

Tomorrow is almost here so TTFN. 

If you want to know my origins of TTFN you will just have to read When WeWere Very Young by A.A. Milne. A Fun fact. On January 1, 2022 the  original Winnie-the-Pooh series entered Public Domain.  Although Disney still holds rights to its versions of Winnie-the-Pooh.  

20 Percent

 This week I hit a milestone stone in my weight loss journey.  Since January of 2022 I have lost 20 percent of my total body weight.  My reward is going out to buy smaller pants.  I have also eliminated a lot of medication and cut the amount in half for 2 others.  

They say the first 20 percent is the easiest.  I still have more work to do.  Let’s see where I am next January.  

I am following the book “A Pound of Cure” available on Amazon.  I will not get a commission on any books sold. I just like the theory behind the lifestyle changes.  Please consult your medical professional if you want to follow this program.  Not every program is right for everyone.  

TTFN

25 Pounds

 I hit a milestone that I thought I would never hit. Since September 8th I have lost 25 pounds and gone down one size. I gave up eating processed foods. This is a very healthy lifestyle change for me. I have more energy. I actually eat more food including nuts and peanut butter.  My skin is clearing up. I am following A Pound of Cure and it is medically supervised for those that might be worried about my rapid weight loss.  Best of all no surgeries involved.  

In crafting news I am making myself a very expensive blanket. This was supposed to be a gift. The one I went into project bags to repurpose, but John likes it so much that I am going out to buy a gift tomorrow.   It is 100% cotton yarn. I am crocheting it. You know how the price of cotton has gone through the roof this year.  I am on the 4th color. I went into my stash and found more yarn.  I am trying not to leave any currently priced at $25.00 a skein behind. I am using Butterfly cotton yarn. Since the were bought at different times, not all skeins are the same length.  Also as each round gets bigger the yarn does not make as many rounds   

I am using each skein of yarn to the point where it can’t make a complete round of the pattern.  Then I am switching colors.  The scraps of yarn will be used for charity scarfs.  Waste not want not. Also my knitting skills have taught me how to hide the beginning and casting off so it is invisible.  

The picture below has the blanket in progress. The current yarn color on the yarn butler. The bag is holding all but 2 skeins of yarn.  The knitting bag is available for purchase at Grandma’s Spinning Wheel in Tucson, in store or on line.  They also have plenty of Butterfly yarn in stock if you want to Crochet along with me.  Feel free to choose your own colors.  I am winging it so I won’t know until I am finished how many skein’s of yarn that I will be using. I am using a basic granny square pattern with a chain 6, join in the round. I have 8 stitch patterns in the center. All double crochet or if in Europe a treble crochet. If you want a pattern let me know, however if might be faster to Google how to make a granny square.

Now to set the 6 am alarm and call it a day  

2 Down 0 To Go

 I had my second cataract surgery earlier this week. Everything went well. I am healing well too. There are some things that I have noticed. First being that sometimes I can even read with out the readers the eye doctor recommended.  Things are definitely brighter and I can’t go outside without sunglasses. So I keep a pair in my purse and a pair by the back door.  I have also noticed that the colors are more brilliant. Today’s trip through Costco was amazing. I made John go up and down every food aisle even if we did not need anything on the aisle just to look at all the colors. The packaging was an amazing Kaleidoscope of colors. I am not sure if it was dorky or my inner artist coming out from a years long nap. 

The strangest side effect of the surgery involves the scale. As of this morning I have lost a total of 8 pounds. Strange right?  I am not craving sweets or other carbohydrates. I am not eating to keep myself awake. If I am tired I take a nap. I am actually happier than I have been in a long time. It’s almost like I got rid of the cataracts and my body is coming back into balance. I can’t wait to see where I go with this.  

I woke up from a nap and reached for my glasses and they were not there  it took me a few minutes to realize that I did not need them anymore. Well except for my readers.  I now have four pair and I know that a day will come when I can’t faint a single pair. So I have them strategically placed around the house.

I have not wanted to do any fussy knitting like hats, gloves or shawls.  Instead I am working on 2 different Operation Gratitude scarfs. One for the car because I am still not driving.  I can also knit these with my eyes closed if the sun is at a bad angle. I need to give my eyes time to heal and balance out.  The good news is that I figured out what I thought needed a small revision in a pattern and will fix it as soon as I feel like taking pictures and editing a pattern. 

It’s getting late so it’s time to call it a day.  

Vacation Part 1

We were to busy having fun to take many pictures. We took more on our second part in Sedona Arizona.  This was our first vacation since the end of 2019.   I lost 5.5 pounds because I was limited to outdoor dining, low fat and carbohydrates meals. I hope that I can keep the trend going.  We also walked an awful lot.  No days of less than 10,000 steps.  

A Weird Kinda Day

 Despite wakings up to a very bad body day the day turned out okay in the end.  By evening I was feeling better.  I managed to get 6 more rows of white knit on the baby blanket. No, I did not quite reach the color change yet.  Maybe tomorrow.  I know I have been saying that for a few days.  It is one of those infinite balls of yarn that just seem to stay almost the same no matter how many rows are knit. I also managed to get 50 % of my to do list done, although truth  be told John  did 50% of my work today.  

I have read the National Institute’s of Health report on inflammation and weight loss. Yet I am still perplexed as to why my clothing just keeps growing in the closet.  Like the pants I got around Mother’s Day.  When I bought them they sat at my waist and were 2 inches above my ankle. The bottom of the pant leg now sits at my ankle and the waist just hit the bottom of my rib cage.  I have not lost a pound yet.  I have also read that the body reconfigures it self after losing x amount of pounds and then the weight loss starts again.  This is the second size down without losing any weight.  I am going to propose a different theory on the subject. It is just as absurd.  It is the desert air that is making the clothing grow.  It is also changing the size tags on clothing at the store so I think that I am buying smaller clothing sizes. This is just as crazy as the 2 vetted and published articles above.  By the way I will wait until the pants go halfway up my rib cage and then I know that I am down another size. Then it’s clothes shopping again. 

I got the strangest call from the car dealership today.  Since I have less than 4,000 miles on my 2 year old car I should let them buy it back so that they can sell it to someone who will love it more and drive it more.  Haha, in this car market they have got to be crazy.  Besides Tessela, which does not come with leather seats, heated seats or steering wheels which is fantastic for arthritis. I am not sure about the padded steering wheel’s which are great for arthritis.  What other car is there on the market.  Most of the car makers are still paying the price for canceling those computer chip order’s at the beginning of the pandemic.  You’ve got to hand it to them they do have gull. I am keeping my car. 

An Update

 I am nearing completion of the next two blankets.  One in cotton and the other in super wash wool.  Pictures to follow when they are completed. The next 2 blankets will both be cotton. One is going to possibly be a new design and the other was slipped into to my knitting basket at Knitting Guild, by the way that is a big No-No.  Don’t assume that someone will finish your project for you because you ran out of yarn and ideas. 

I am still having arthritis issues which are messing with my sleep schedule.  Not to mention it’s pollen season in Tucson.  Even with allergy medicine, I still have issues. Even with all that happening, I am managing to buck the COVID19 trend of gaining 2 pounds a month.  All I know is the last week of April I can go clothes shopping.  I am in need of almost everything in smaller sizes.  I am going to hold off ordering more clothing online so I can get some up to date clothing.  I really hope the spring fashions are not going to be a bust.  

More Progress

Each hanger represents a pair of pants or skirt that is now to big to wear. I am mainly losing inches right now which is OK with me to.

My diet has eliminated all high fructose corn syrup, corn sugar, artificial sweeteners and 80% of the sugar that I use to consume.

Breakfast is dependent on my schedule with Eric, but usually cereal and tea.

My lunch and dinner plates now are in the 25% lean protein, 25% starch and 50% vegetables without margarine or butter. My snacks are vegetables, fruit nuts or a spoonful of peanut butter.

This is not the fastest way to lose weight. Although I think that replacing cookies and soda with vegetables and water are a better choice for me. Please check with you doctor before you embark on this or any other diet.

Progress Maybe

My body is still having a hard time with this adjustment of 80% less sugar and no soda’s.  I am finding it hard to believe that I am sleeping better most nights, with the exception of the nights that Eric wakes e up.  The nausea is slowly abating.  I have a bit more energy. I also need to eat more since fruits and vegetables have less calories.

I have to admit that I am a little disappointed that the scale is only down 2.5 pounds.  I know I did not put it all on in one week, but damm it I want it gone in one week.  John says that I just need a little more patience.  This is not my strong suit.  But this is not a diet, it is a lifestyle change.

After observing another spinner I finally have the short draw down in spinning.  Although I have modified it do to the arthritis in my left hand.  My technique might not be by the book, but I can finally do a short draw after years of spinning.  I am doing the happy dance.  Now to learn to do bouchée before I need to teach it in a few months.

And finally, I have found another area to Zen.  I was looking for something for John and I stumbled upon some more clutter.  More craft supplies to share, Goodwill, trash or recycling only time will tell.

My Spinning Chair

I have found only one downside to losing weight. You have to promise not to laugh though. It involves spinning more specifically my spinning chair. As the weight has come off I have lost a lot of my padding and this makes it hard to sit for more than an hour or two.  The spinning chair will need a pad to make it more comfortable. Time to get out the sewing machine.

Dibs

Well it started again yesterday. The dibs game. I usually get my my skirts long to start with, usually about ankle length.  As I lose weight and inches they get longer.  So I have a whole process that I go through to avoid hemming the skirts.  First I hike the skirt up my waist about 1/2 of an inch. 

Next comes putting the skirt back to my natural waste line and adding 1 inch heels.  Staying with the 1 inch heels, I hike up the skirt up about 1/2 of an inch again. When that stops working I add the 2 inch heels. Then I hike up my skirt in 1/2 inch increments until I am 1/2 way up my rib cage. About that time, I am ready to buy the next size down. 

I know that at this size that I could add straps and turn the skirts into a sun dress and wear them, but I try to avoid the sun at all costs and would not wear the sundress.  So at this point I go to the 4th Avenue Street Faire and get some new tie dye skirts. Then I pass on the skirts that people called dips on.  

This is the slow road to weight loss and it goes 1/2 inch at a time.  To the next 1/2 inch down and beyond.  

I Made My Goal Early

The big news today does not have to do with the house.  Nor does it involve everyone being sick, which we all are.  Not even knitting, spinning or weaving.  It involves a long term goal made when I went off one arthritis medicine which caused me to put on 50 pounds in 6 months.  For those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis I have now lost 1/2 of the weight I put on with the medicine.  Slow and steady is winning the race for me.  

So after much research I went off aspertame and high fructose corn syrup. The first 3 months were very rough. I started using smaller plates for almost all my meals, I still use a soup bowl for cereal though. I eat a lot less fast food. Most of my cooking is now from scratch.  When Eric is home sick and PBS is on all day, I do the excersice breaks with Hooper, which are much easier now. I walk more and do more of my own house cleaning. I set a goal of losing 5 pounds a year, because most people my age put on 5 pounds a year.  I figured that this would put me ahead of the game.  It was a few big changes and a lot of small ones. Today almost a full 2 months early I have hit my 5 pound weight loss goal for the year.  This means that I can now start using my Wii fit again, I am now under the maximum weight. 

The plates below are as follows: The daisy dinner plate ( this used to. be our dinner plate )was the standard size Correlle dinner plate of the 1990's, which is now used as a serving platter.  The yellow luncheon plate by Fiesta is now our dinner plate. The clear glass desert plate is now our lunch size plate.  Usually divided into 25% protein, 25% starch and 50% vegetables.  

Since I have no medical degree, I would recommend that you check with your doctor before making these or any changes to your diet or excersice routine. This blog is not meant to replace your doctors advise.  This is just about my life and what works for me.  

Passover Round Up

There was a positive side of being totally unprepared for Passover this year. I only had time to buy 3 boxes of Matzo this year do to travel for my moms birthday and other things happening around here. So I only had time to get to one store and all they had was matzo and chicken. They had no other Kosher for Passover mixes.  They also had grape juice, apples, dried fruit and dates the things I needed for charoset and fruit compote.

So my Passover cooking was a big pot of chicken soup, making the fruit compote and charoset. One day of busy cooking for John and I. The charoset lasted until yesterday the very last day of Passover so breakfast was taken care of. We finished the matzo last night. So I don't have to make a trip to the food bank with the left over mixes.

No one missed the Passover coffee cakes for breakfast. No one missed the snack cakes or cookies in the afternoon and evening, we ate fruit instead. We did not eat a lot of junk food and no one missed it, even me. Yes, all holidays have their junk food of cookies, cakes and candy. We ate on the light and healthy side.

The best part of not being prepared for Passover this year was that instead of gaining 5 pounds, I lost a pound. A holiday that lasted a week and I lost a pound. We will have to try this again next year.

Whether you celebrated Passover or Easter I hope that you enjoyed the time with your families.

An Update 1461 Days in the Making

If you were following my blog in December of 2009 you might vaguely remember the one from December 9th. That was the one in which I stated that I gave up everything with HFCS and aspartame. This is thanks to my friend Kay. As you might recall the weight came off very fast for the 1st 10 pounds and then seemed to slow to almost nothing. I have since dropped 3 dress sizes and as of today a total of  24.5 pounds.  Which is also bucking the trend for women my age to gain 1 to 5 pounds a year.

In the 4 years since I have give up HFCS and aspartame, I have found more energy. I am eating a lot less junk food, because lets face it those 2 things are in a lot of processed foods. I have also gotten more active. I have given up the house keeper, which is a huge bonus since I get more exercise time in and have a cleaner more organized house. I also have more money for things we need and want. Yes some of that money made it toward yarn and fluff. I am not an angle after all.  I have more time for the things that I love. I can now wear more fashionable clothing. I am getting sick a lot less. Yes, I know that as I write this blog post, Eric and I are recovering from a very aggressive cold that has put us on antibiotics.

The best news is that my body is changing shape and redefining itself. I am finally getting happier with my body. Not that I still don't have a long way to go, in my humble opinion. But  I am letting my body lead the way without the aide of crash diets or weighing and measuring everything. No more paying for rah rah sessions where I tend to pick up bad habits.  My body has reset itself. I now stop eating when I am full. This is a very good thing. I tend to eat more when I am more active and less on quieter days. Which with restaurant portions it often leads to boxes of leftovers or I just order an appetizer instead of a meal. I also tend to snack a lot less, even when Eric is sick.

I know that 6.125 pounds a year is not a huge weight loss in any ones book. The daily average weight loss looks even worse just 0.01676933607118412 pounds per day, yes I was playing around with the numbers. This just means that I will not look at the daily weight loss. I will try not to become to attached to the scale, but rather how my clothes are fitting me and how much energy that I have. I will let you know how I feel when I hit my next milestone. Just think you might not have to wait a full 1461 days to find out.