Boredom challenges diet

When I am bored I start doing tasks that are necessary but always seem to take a back burner.  This week I have been updating documentation.  These are procedure documents that we provide to the helpdesk knowledge base.   When we upgrade to a new version of an application or move to a new server, for example, these documents need to update as well.

Now he’s not that boring.

It is time consuming but it does make the day go by faster.   I run through the procedures and update the screenshots and notes.  Put it in the proper template for submission.  Put in the appropriate cross references to other articles. Open an incident and submit them to be put into our knowledge base.  Fun stuff.

It also keeps me from looking around for a snack or walking to Starbucks.  Documentation is diet friendly.  I have also started religiously documenting what I eat again in a journal on my phone. When you have to admit that what you have done you pause before doing it again.  Those two Hershey’s kisses I grabbed off the bosses desk, were they really worth 44 calories.  Probably not.  But it did stop me from finishing off the bowl that afternoon.  When we pause and think about what we are doing we can make the right choices.

So distracting.

Just now I went to help up front at the check-in desk.  They have the best candy.  I grabbed 2 bit0honey’s and now I am thinking why did I do that?  They were 48 calories.  I think I liked the kisses better and it was 4 calories less.  But that is beside the point.  The point is I made myself record that in my phone for today.  Documentation and taking responsibility for ones actions are key to losing weight. It is so easy to say, “But I like it”.  Or “I am hungry”. But are you truly hungry?  Or are you just bored and looking for a distraction.

Working it

Does it ever seem like the universe is working against you?  Last night we decided to go to the gym.  Low and behold our location had closed.  The lease was up and the landlord refused to renew it.  Now I supposed we would have known that had we been going to the gym regularly, but we didn’t go the whole month of December and it closed December 29^th.

So now we have to go to another location across town and cancel our membership.  It’s hard enough to go to a gym next to my house let alone across town.  We found a new gym that my husband’s insurance covers for free.   So that’s a positive thing, except my membership will be 20 dollars a month.  So we are right back to where we started at Fitness for 10.  Can’t win for losing.

I am sure it’s not this nice. But as long as I’m dreaming.

One could argue that is a small price to pay for the improvement of one’s health.  On the upside too, this new gym has an indoor swimming pool, which is truly my favorite form of exercise. We are going to check it out today or tomorrow. Did I ever tell you exercise is a dirty word around our house?  So is gym, walking, running, hiking, stairs, and any sort of extraneous movement that can be avoided.  So talk dirty to me baby.  I am ready to get back in shape.

The tongue is not that tasty after all

I just read an article that says a fat tongue can contribute to sleep apnea.  It’s an interesting idea.  The study showed that if you reduced your weight by 10%, an MRI shows that the fat in your tongue is also reduced significantly and can reduce snoring as well as other symptoms of sleep apnea.

It seems to me that an obese person might have a “thinner” tongue given the fact that it is getting much more use.  But that is just not the case.  They aren’t certain why the tongue has any fat at all. It should be just muscle, but it is marbled with fat.  No wonder the cat wants it.

I would also speculate that people who talk incessantly would also have muscular tongues.  I wonder if lying has any effect. Certainly then politicians would not suffer from apnea, nor in-laws. But this does not prove to be the case.  Fat body equals fat tongue.  It’s that simple.

So all of my health problems are related to my obesity.  We really are what we eat, so to speak, (fat) tongue in cheek.

Failure or a new chance?

I don’t think a half pound peanut butter cup in on my diet.  But I ate it anyway.  I was careful about it.  I cut it into eight pieces.  The first day I ate one. The second I ate the rest of them.  I am like the owl in the tootsie pop commercial.  Except I beat him by one. On the bright side I have rid myself of all the bad food in my desk.  It was delicious.

Tomorrow we get back to basics.  I am cutting sugar, walking more, and the ultimate dirty words, going to the gym.  Yikes.

There is always a reason not to go to the gym.  I don’t feel well, my partner doesn’t feel well, I worked too late to go now, etc.

There is always an excuse to eat sugar.  Because it is there! I am depressed and it will make me feel better.  (The crash from the sugar high makes me feel worse, not to mention the bathroom scales.)

We who suffer from obesity face these obstacles everyday of our lives.  We can choose to be defeated by them or we can achieve our goals.  Food is not happiness.   The gym never killed anyone (I don’t think?).  Walking is a better alternative to needing a wheel chair because we are so damned obese that we can’t.

We know what to do.  And sadly I have failed to do it lately.

We all fall down

Smart home gadgets are all the rage.  I am little late to the party, but Alexa has finally joined our house hold.  I have an Echo Show and some smart outlets.  You can rename Alexa but there are only a few choices.  We call her Echo. So now I can turn lights on and off with a voice command or on my phone app or I can put them on a schedule.  I can call my mother through the Echo Show and we can see each other.  I bought her and Echo Spot, a smaller version of the Show.  But mom doesn’t like to use it.  She is 83.  

I got it for her because she lives alone now.  I thought she would like asking it questions, she doesn’t.  But more importantly I wanted it to be able to call 911 in an emergency. In theory this was a good idea.  If she falls, Echo can call the paramedics.

Well, we put it to the test right before Christmas.  Mom fell and broke her pelvis.  But guess what?  She wasn’t home, so Echo couldn’t hear her cry for help.  Luckily, the store manager came out to the parking lot.  She had tripped over one of those cement parking bars that are supposed to prevent you from pulling up too far.  Small town have their advantages.  People came to her rescue.  Someone gave her a pillow, someone called 911, the manager took her groceries back into the store and held them for her in the frig or freezer, whatever was required.  And they didn’t have her car towed. Amazing!

She had to stay in a nursing home until last Saturday.  Now my nephew’s girl friend is staying with her until she can fend for herself again.  People not gadgets come to the rescue.  I am afraid though when I am that age I may need gadgets or robots or something to save me.  Or maybe my great-grandson?

A brighter new year ahead

I have been quiet.  I think of blogging but there are so many things happening that are taking control of my life right now.  I am happy that we are starting a new year and a new decade.  I want to leave the last one behind.

 The biggest thing from 2019 was my father’s death.  The biggest thing on the upside was our 20^th anniversary.  We went to Hawaii.  These two events were 5 days apart.  Our anniversary was May 5^th and my father died on May 1^st.  Seven months have passed and it is still unreal to me.

This year is already better.  We just came back from celebrating my great-grandson’s 1^st birthday. He is so adorable.  They do this thing called a “Smash Cake”.  (We were lucky to even have a cake.)  Anyway, you get this little cake that looks similar to the actual cake and you put the kid in front of it and let them go to town.  He wasn’t really into it.  He pulled the dinosaur off and licked some frosting of his fingers and that was about it.  I have heard and seen videos of other kids making a holy mess of it all.

He is not my blood relation but I claim him anyway.  People think he looks like me.  Maybe just being there has rubbed off somehow.  Who really knows how things work?  Science is changing all the time.

Being a great-grandpa is fun.  You don’t have to do anything but play.

I could enumerated the horrors of 2019 here, but I am ready to move on.  Happy 2020 everyone.

Day One (For the hundredth time!)

Why is it so hard to start monitoring my food intake again? I have to keep myself honest and record everything I put in my mouth (well at least that I swallow, damn even that has an innuendo attached to it) my calorie intake, there that’s better.

I also got on the dreaded scales. But I am only gone to do that once a week. More often can be threatening to my continuing this process.

It is really too early to tell if I am going to succeed, but I am off and running, well maybe just walking reluctantly.

I did well with breakfast, a bowl of Cheerios.

For lunch I had a grilled chicken sandwich with avocado, cheese and a slice of ham. It’s called a Californian. I discarded the bread and only ate the contents. I substituted cottage cheese for the French fries and had unsweetened ice tea with lemon. I don’t particularly like avocado but it is supposed to help with my cholesterol so I wrapped it with tomatoes and cheese and somehow got it down.

Tonight’s dinner is a bone-in pork chop with broccoli and baked fingerling potatoes. Got to have some starch.

The trick is going to be avoiding the candy, cookies and other nasty snacks still around the house. But I am determined, at least for now.