Monday, August 28, 2017

My brain has been anywhere but here...


Between the fourth Navy ship collision in Asian waters this year (only August people) and Hurricane Harvey, not much has been on my mind except two of my children--Sonshine in the Navy in the Asian waters and my Brown-Eyed Girl in the vicinity of Harvey.

Sonshine is really the safer of the two as much of South Texas is getting submerged. There's just no where for the water to go. Luckily, the Brown-Eyed Girl and her roommate live on the third floor. But they're pretty much stuck there for the duration, which will probably three or four more days. In addition to the rain itself, Lake Conroe, located just north of where my baby lives is full, full, full and is overflowing/being drained, and because the earth is already saturated, it just runs down the streets and sidewalk. So yeah.

DD is safe and sound here with us, so that's good.

Please keep my oldest and my youngest in your thoughts and prayers.

Of course so many folks have it way worse, so also pray for South Texas, our leaders and our citizens. If you have any cash to spare, please give to the Red Cross.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Weight loss update...


Last Wednesday I talked about fasting and the number of calories in a pound and what that meant to me...

So here we are a week later and despite two very calorie and carb-laden days (Sat & Sun), I have dropped 2-ish pounds. I promise I'm being safe in my choices. I'm eating enough calories for my body to exist and then some--did you know it takes everyone 1200 to 1600 calories a day just for basic body functions to keep you alive??--and drinking *plenty* of water during these dog days of summer.

What I did do was increase the length of time I go without eating. I've been waiting to 11 am to consume my first meal of the day to maximize my body's fat-burning mode. I do give it some easily accessible carbs right after going to the gym for a recovery boost in the form of my cinnamon/honey elixir I take for arthritis.

It's not always fun or easy waiting until 11 and, starting tomorrow, I will go back to a more normal schedule. I'd been in a pretty static eating mode and I think the increased fasting shook my body up a little bit. Made it adjust and pay attention.

I'm getting closer to my goal, which, after probably three years of being stuck with ten pounds to go, pleases me greatly. Once I get there, then it's muscle-building time. Not super huge ones, just nicely rounded muscles appropriate for my age.

Happy Hump Day...

Catch you Friday.


Monday, August 21, 2017

Who knew??


You might have, but I didn't and learning it gave me a boost.

Apparently, when tracking carbs, you're supposed to subtract the grams of dietary fiber from the grams of carbs and that's the actual number of carbs your body's going to absorb/utilize/store...


On top of that, I discovered this Lavash bread that has very low carbs to begin with. Subtract the fiber and now I've got a super low carb way to eat my tuna and fill my tummy. I can't begin to tell you how excited this makes me. This Lavash bread is also low in calories and high in protein and is made with flax and oat bran as well as whole wheat. So WIN WIN and WIN. :0)

How was your weekend?

All prepped for the solar eclipse?

Friday, August 18, 2017

Online friends becoming in person friends...


It's no secret--or it shouldn't be--that I'm what's called a fan girl. A girl of any age who has more than a passing or basic love of something--specifically things like tv shows, movies, books and the like or characters from those things. It seems that it's okay to be a rabid fan of sports or your country or the military (I'm passionate about all those things too), but being so crazy about a tv show or book or character that you participate in fandom culture, that's still a bit of a head-scratcher for most people.


But I digress...on Saturday, I get to meet a gal who is a part of the BBC's Robin Hood fandom that I've been involved in since 2010 or 2011. The show's been over for many years, but there's a few of us who still congregate online each week to say hi and catch up. One of those friends is in Dallas this week, and so we're going to meet at a local restaurant and do what we fan girls do--chat and share and chat some more.



I'm super excited about this. It's not the first time I've met someone from the Robin Hood fandom. Back in 2012, four other ladies all traveled from around the Mid-West to Fort Worth and we had a meetup at my house. It was a precious time to meet like-minded women and to get to know one another and share ourselves.

In fact, I'll be rooming with one of those ladies when I go to Denver in October for a writing conference. Can't wait to see her again either.

And then the other day, I sort of connected with another gal who's also attending the con in Denver. She wants to go to see the Avalanche (Colorado's hockey team) play as well and mentioned she was getting tickets to the Stars first home game against the Vegas Golden Knights and--bam--we're gonna meet somewhere at the American Airline Center and connect. And if that wasn't enough, she actually lives in Pittsburgh and already invited me to her fair city.

Which means what, Jen???

The Pittsburgh Penguins!!!! I can go see a game at some point on their home ice. woooot!!

Okay, so happy Friday to you and happy Friday to me.

Have a great weekend.


Wednesday, August 16, 2017

My Fitbit, weightloss, and me...


So I learned how to track my various exercises via the Fitbit and it seems the device does a better job tracking my heart rate when I do that, so yay. I guess the question still is...how accurate is the heart rate as gauged by the Fitbit in exercise mode versus figures provided by the machines at the gym?

I haven't done a detailed analysis of this, but the times I've compared the two, they seem close enough. As long as I'm in the heart rate range for fat burning, it doesn't matter much if the discrepancy is within five to seven beats.

There's a larger difference, however, in the "calories burned" figures. The machines always tell me I've burned more calories than what the Fitbit says. While I'd like to burn more calories, I use the Fitbit's figures just to be on the safe side. As long as I eat/log fewer calories that I burn, I'm always in the process of losing weight.

Apparently a pound is 3500 calories, so it would take a seven-day week to lose a pound if you consistently consumed 500 fewer calories than you burned every day.

I haven't been making as much progress as quickly as I'd been hoping, but learning that info the other day, has made it easier to make sure I keep at least that much of a difference between intake and outgo.

So new challenge for Jen--consume 500 fewer calories a day than I burn. Let's meet back in a week and see what's happened. :0)

Have a great rest of the week.


Monday, August 14, 2017

Please send your good wishes into the universe on my behalf...


Why you ask???

Because there's a chance I could sail aboard Sonshine's ship on its last leg home--IF IF IF a enough spots open up.


They announced the plan to the crew the other day. Unfortunately, Sonshine was apparently sleeping when the initial call went out and he didn't see the announcement until he showed up for work. He's got me on the waiting list (well, HE'D BETTER), so we just need enough other people to not be able to go in order for me to be able to.

So please-please-please keep fingers and toes crossed and send those happy thoughts out on my behalf.

I'll love you forever.


Friday, August 11, 2017

Just TGIF my friends...






Gotta dive back into my book this weekend!

Have a good one.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Writers Retreat, Part II


Home again, home again, jiggedy jog, after a fabulous long writers retreat weekend with some of the most beautiful women on the planet.


 Clover, Jen, and Regina...

 ...Susie, Chrissy, and Michelle.



As I mentioned last week, we went to Lake Conroe. The house on the lake we stayed in belongs to the sister and brother-in-law of one of my writer peeps and they graciously allowed us to take up residence for a few days.

The weather was gorgeous, even when it rained. The food fantastic. The company unparalleled. Every single one of us got words on a page or some plot point figured out or both, but the real beauty of the weekend was the way the time together doing things other than writing bonded us all closer together.

 The lake from the house...

 ...and the house from the lake.

I've never had as close or as good of friends as this. I cannot imagine my life without any one of these special women.

While I was there, I also got to visit with the Brown-Eyed Girl as she lives just a ways down the road.

Monday, August 7, 2017

The wonders of technology...


I am still sometimes amazed by aspects of technology.

There's this lovely little app on pretty much every smart phone called Google Maps. :0) When I go places usually look up my route on a computer and have a fair idea how to get where I need to go. I like having the app, because if I get lost, I can pull over and figure out how to get unlost.

Now, I've never used the app to its fullest potential--that is, using it to actually direct me real time to my destination.

In Nashville, we used it to get to the conference hotel from the hotel where we stayed, but DH was driving and had used it before.

I used it to get to the lake house and from the lake house to the Brown-Eyed Girl's apartment and back and, holy cow, that was pretty wicked cool.

And a lot of you might already use that feature, but I rarely drive anywhere I've never been and I'm usually with DH and he drives or navigates if I am. This time, I was with my writer girl friends and none of us knew where we going, so it was time I used it for myself.

Now, I feel a little more confident about going out of town to events or just when traveling and visiting places like, say, Seattle where my kid is home-ported and we rent a car to get around.

How about you?? Do you use the maps feature on your phone to navigate.


Friday, August 4, 2017

Writers Retreat


Good morning, friends...today's blog post come to you from the shore of Lake Conroe in South/Central Texas, when my closest writer friends and I are enjoying a writers retreat weekend.


I even got see my beautiful baby girl last night as well.


Hope you have lovely weekend too!


Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Resistence is difficult, but not always futile...


I've come to discover the Fitbit has at least one snafu in it's something (I'm not sure what)--it won't always (hardly ever) register your elevated heart rate. Except it sorta does, sometimes? My higher heart rates from when I'm working out don't always register on the Fitbit's screen, but if I go into the dashboard and look at the data, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not--weird.

In order to burn fat (my long-term energy storage/source) rather than my short term energy, I need to do two things: get into fat burn mode by getting my heart rate up to a certain level and do that when my body doesn't have easy access to short-term energy reserves--those that come from recently eaten foods.

Two weeks ago, I gave up tortillas and cold cereal yet again. I fell off the wagon once, but have been good ever since.


Last Friday, I was really craving cold cereal... But as I have seen progress in losing the weight I had regained, I held fast, as difficult as it was, and was able to successfully resist that delicious bowl of sweet crunchy goodness.

My willpower paid off and I have lost a few more ounces and am 17% of the way to my target weight.

I still have several adjustments to make to my diet, but all in good time and in moderation. I figure once I've been on the wagon for a while, I won't crave them so badly. That's my hope, anyway.

This is constant state of learning and adjusting--well, isn't everything in life??-- and eventually I'll find the right combination.

Have a great rest of the week!!