A Time For Everything

The St. Louis Blues were swept from the first round of playoffs by the Colorado Avalanche. Now, I don't really care about the St. Louis Blues; they've been a general thorn in the side of my Dallas Stars, and their goalie is a bitch.

However--seeing any hockey player cry when their hopes for a(nother) Stanley Cup have been quashed, really gets to me. They're such fierce competitors and seeing them this vulnerable and willing to show their heartbreak really gets to me. I feel it in my chest. Even now, thinking about it, makes my heart clench a bit.

Remember that personality strengths test I took?

The strength of empathy ranked quite high, which surprised me when I first got the results. But I guess this is one way that empathy manifests itself.

On the flip side of the Blues' loss is the Avalanche win. They're also a favorite of mine and I'm over the moon they've advanced to the second round. One of my other favorite player, Nathan MacKinnon, plays for them, so I'm excited for him.

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Trying to get back on the KETO wagon today and will be doing a detox / cleanse for the next 10 days. It'll be interesting so see how it works.

Surprisingly however, when I weighed myself I hadn't gained as much weight as I imagined considering all the unhealthy things I've been eating for the last six months. In fact, I weighed in this morning at the upper level of my usual four pound swing. Now, I imagine the current high is actually higher, but overall, that's good news.

My main goal is not primarily the weight loss, nor the loss of fat, but getting back into ketosis and subsequently autophagy.

If you're not familiar, it means at its base level: self-eating.

When your body gets to this point it is removing debris and toxins from cells. The cells can then regenerate back to optimal functioning, whatever that may be. Autophagy has the ability to heal or really eat bacteria that is causing issues. For example--gum disease. A friend of mine had periodontal disease and after some time spent in autophagy, the disease had been eradicated from her mouth. I'm not sure how long that took, but I've known her for a while, and I'm going to bet less than a year.

That was of particular interest to me because I too suffer from periodontal disease. I've had boneloss in my jaw as a result. As a result of the severity of that boneloss, I had three teeth pulled and a bone graft applied. I'm on my way to getting posts and a bridge put in.

But I'd like for the periodontal disease be a thing of the past so that I keep the rest of my teeth. I'm only 53...

Now not only would that process heal my mouth, but I'm sure other parts of my body will also reap the benefits. Google-search "benefits of autophagy" if your curious as to all the other benefits...

* * * * *

I hope you've had a good week since last I posted.

Take care...

First and foremost, the WIP is no longer a Work In Progress. It's DONE. It came in 6K words over the requirement but it doesn't look like I'll have to chop chop chop. Whew! I really didn't know what was choppable.

Now it's time to get some sort of outline and/or synopsis going for the next WIP. Oh, boy!


I put my red, white, and blue fairy lights up this past weekend and enjoyed having them on whenever I was in my office. And I have enough of them that they cover three of four walls even having to go up and over the window. There is no chair rail on the fourth wall so no need / desire for lights on that one...



The first carb-fast was a success. I lost about an inch around the hips, but not much at waist or bust, but that's okay. On the other hand, I've suddenly noticed over the last few days how loose many of my pants and shirts fit, so something's disappearing from somewhere. :0)

Reward day (Sunday) was all it was cracked up to be.


So, yes, I ate that pint of ice cream and the bag of licorice. I had one box of those yogurt covered cranberries and three pumpkin cupcakes with frosting. I also had a coffee thing from Starbucks and a steak lunch (below) courtesy of DD. It was a gluttonous day, but well worth it. I was back on the carb-fast wagon Monday morning however and will be going for three weeks this time. I've also added back in my targeted exercise routines.



Anyway, have a great rest of your week!!

It's a three-day weekend. And I'm so happy to have it right now.

I'm looking forward to all those available writing hours ahead of me as well as to my weekly Zoom chat with my writer besties. I'm still not sure I'll be able to tell them the book is finished though. I worked on it this morning and I have tomorrow's hours prior to our call to make it happen, but I'm not sure I accomplished enough today. Maybe I'll spend some time with it during lunch today...


Several months ago, my mother-in-law gave me a wonderful counter-top oven. It works great and I love it. Thanks again, Mimi! But it has lived on my counter since then and it's the size of a large microwave. So between it and my actual microwave, well, the counters are full. And I just couldn't take it any longer, so I made a purchase yesterday. A kitchen cart to put this thing on. And it's awesome. The main part of the counters are now free off all the crap that had been conglomerating on it.


It's a little taller than I realized, and I'm debating relocating it, but otherwise it's great. Those things on the shelf were also on the counter, so I was glad to get them a new home. And of course, I didn't grab a picture of my lovely, open counters. Ah, well. But every time I walk into the kitchen, I smile.


My carb fast is supposed to end tomorrow (Saturday). Meaning I can enjoy my reward on Sunday. Or all my rewards. I've wondered if I should keep going for another week... On the other hand, my original deal with myself was two weeks. I can set the next stint at three weeks, right? Right; okay. That's settled. :0)

I almost gave up / cheated last night. DD asked for McDonald's while I was out and about picking up my cart on the way home, and I was soooo tempted to buy something for myself as well, but I resisted. I only have today and tomorrow to get through and I can make it and enjoy all the junk I want on Sunday.

Monday, it'll be back on the wagon. Gonna give it another go and add the additional targeted exercise back into the mix. I shouldn't have the side effects this time around.


And that is that, I guess. Y'all have a great weekend.

Since I have no carbs...I need flavor and I got a wild taste for chili. I grew up eating chili with beans and have always made it that way, as one often does with foods from childhood...

However, beans have a lot of carbs, so I searched for alternatives. Google suggested lima beans, which still have a lot of carbs but also have half as many fiber grams. Alas, still too many for me right now. I thought about chick peas aka garbanzo beans, but they have the same problem.

So I thought--I'm in Texas and beanless chili is a thing. But what could I add to add some bulk--as if beef wasn't enough--and I decided on kale. Of course, you have to enjoy kale for this to work, which I do, so I was off to the races. I bought a package of chili seasoning because I'm not good with that kind of thing and instead of plain old diced tomatoes, I bought a can of Ro-tel for an added kick.

This is what I ended up with:





The flavor was great. I enjoyed the kale. I'm not so fond of chunks of tomato, so next time, I'll probably run the Ro-tel through the food chopper a bit. But this ended up a winner of a Keto-friendly recipe and off the cuff too.

The other thing I made this weekend, which probably isn't that original, is Buffalo Chicken Poppers.


I'd made this Buffalo-flavored cream cheese chicken thing Saturday instead of the BBQ chicken the rest of family ate and it lacked a little something, which I'll have to pick a friends brain about later. It wasn't bad, just a little bland on its own, so I bought jalapenos to stuff and that was also very tasty.

Writing this up is making me hungry! But I still have a couple of hours before I can break my fast for the day, but rest assured, I will be eating one or the other of those items for my morning snack.

Hope you had a great weekend and here's to a productive week.

I mentioned the carb fasting last week and I've been doing my homework in regards to how many carbs are in the foods I regularly eat.

My 5-grams-or-less rule might have to modified for one food item: my Greek yogurt. Most flavors have 10 grams of carbs with 3 grams of fiber for a net carb count of 7 grams. I'm not willing to give up the yogurt right now, so I think that's going to be the exception item.

And I also mentioned, I'll be upping the veggie intake mostly via salads. Now it's time to research a few salad fixins'. Few people like a plain salad and kale salad definitely needs a bit of sprucing up. Plus I'll have some calories in general to work with since I'm also trading in the daily (Stouffer's delicious) meatloaf for tuna.

My targeted start date for this fast is either May 10th or May 17th at the latest, and my goal is to fast for two full weeks.

The targeted exercise routines are still in trial and error mode, but we're getting there. My goal is to have at least six, but hopefully nine exercises for each body area to mix and match from.

My reward for fasting for the full two weeks, no matter the results, will be this:



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Last week's trip to the grocery store was mostly fine. I didn't run into any shortages food-wise, but was unable to find Vitamin C tablets. I'll try again this week. The thing that really floored me (but maybe shouldn't have, considering the COVID-19 mandates for masks) was the complete obliteration of the fabric section and thread. All I wanted was a roll of black thread for my sewing/mending kit as my spool finally ran out, but the thread rack was decimated too. *sigh*

* * * * *

The publishing admin as well as the writing is coming along. I've made progress everyday and I'm looking forward to at least three full uninterrupted hours of writing bliss tomorrow morning.

Have a wonderful weekend!

And it's been a week...

Work has been crazy busy and needed all hands on deck, so I haven't had much opportunity to do more than my job.

But here it is Friday again and yet again, what a relief. I guess it's time to catch up a little.

Easter was uneventful as it has been since the kids all grew up and moved out. I did buy one small goody each for DH and DD and that was the extent of things.

The weather has been up and down and we've had late cold snaps--which is nothing to complain about really considering my family in Colorado and Nebraska both got snowed on. I am, however, definitely ready for the super cold to get lost.

The food logging continues to pay off. The weight loss has slowed, but is still happening. I have about four pounds to reach my target. I also began my targeted workout routines. My abs, arms, and glutes are getting their workout and have been making their presences known the following day. The glutes routine might need some tuning as it's the top of my thighs complaining, not my behind.

As I was writing this, DD called to say our local WalMart had 4-pack of toilet paper again, so yay. Not that we need it with the two 12-packs we've bought in the last couple weeks, but it's nice that some things appear to be getting back to normal.

Speaking of getting back to normal, our governor will be announcing his plan to re-open business across the state. Texas has been lucky, although we still need to exercise caution so as not to trigger a second wave.

Digging into the photo archives last week was fun, so let's do it again...




Have a great weekend and stay safe.

Back in May 2005, the TV show series finale ended with a coin flip. The two main protagonists had finally declared their love for one another but had each been offered a promotion--to opposite end of the globe of course.

The coin toss would determine who would accept their promotion and who would pass so they could live happily ever after together.


A spinoff (NCIS: LA) of a spinoff (NCIS) that JAG launched way back in 2003 just aired their season finale featuring two special guest stars : David James Elliott and Catherine Bell reprising their roles as Harm and Mac fourteen years later.

The fans' question--who won the coin toss--was finally answered.

Unfortunately, the group of ladies I was with--my JAG ladies for the annual JAG meet--were not happy. Some were terribly disappointed, some were just plain angry.

If this episode's writer--who just so happened to be the biggest proponent of that Harm & Mac relationship back in the day and a writer on JAG who tended to write shippery episodes--couldn't give the fans what they wanted, then why bother bursting everyone's fantasies of how the coin flip ended. The winner of the coin flip didn't really matter.

What mattered was that Harm and Mac would be together and that they'd work out the logistics to make things work.

I'm not angry, but I am disappointed.

On the other hand, the current situation leaves the two characters in a position to find their way back to one another. There are rumblings and rumors (which may be just that by hopeful fans) that some sort of new show with our beloved hero and heroine is in the offing. We shall see.

As mentioned...it was JAG Meet weekend when a group of women who came together solely on the love of a TV show are still friends 20 years and long after the show has ended. I haven't been a part of the group for all 20 years, but I was on the fringes when that first group gathered at a local restaurant to meet. This year is the 20th anniversary. Amazing.

Here we are this year, with a handful of missing faces:


Now on a slightly different topic... It was this photo, nine years ago, that really spurred me hard into weight-loss/getting healthy mode:


See that big orange blob on the left? Yeah, that's me. I didn't want to look like that anymore, so in January of 2012 I finally knuckled down and made the commitment to do something about it.

In October of 2017, I reached my target weight--losing 63-ish pounds to get there. I knew it was going to be a long haul with various milestones and adjustments along the way.

While I do have to get back on the wagon of exercising and eating right again to lose the ten pounds I've gained over the last several months, I'm very pleased with myself for maintaining the weight loss over all and making the lifestyle changes necessary.

There are or shall I say *there will be* new physical-health related changes coming. But life is in flux and I have to figure out what the best path forward is going to be and what change I want to work on first.

As always, seeing these women was a wonderful time and a lovely weekend.

Hope you had a great weekend.

As of the last time I stepped on the scale, a week or so ago, I've gained ten pounds.

Because of hockey, I have made bad food choices. I own that.

I have two more in-person games. Tonight and a day to be determined. There may be more official watching parties in my future, but that'll be it for live games. I looked up pricing for the final round--$1K minimum per seat. Yeah, I don't have that.

So it'll be watching parties one way or another for the rest of the playoffs...

I'll be making better food choices going forward, but I also need to get back to exercising even if it's just the old treadmill at home three times a day.

It shouldn't take me terribly long to lose the weight...the inches are another matter. The question becomes how important to me are those inches because it's going to take me going to the next level to make better progress than the last time. So something to ponder.

Hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend...

Catch you Wednesday. 
 

Last week, I reviewed my progress or lack thereof on last year's goals. I didn't do nearly as well as I thought I had, nor did I have as many goals as I thought I had. But it's spilled milk or water under the bridge and there's no use in beating myself up. I can't go back. I can only move forward and try to do better.

Several of last year's goals are being carried over. They're that important. Let's start with those.

1) Writing to my Grandma in Denmark. This is important. The woman is in her 90s. She's not going to be around much longer in the grand scheme of things. In order to make this easier to accomplish, I think I'll find some postcards depicting Texas and send these along monthly with a few notes and then go for a longer letter every couple of months. Honestly, there's not a lot going on in my life, but I know my Grandma doesn't care that much and would like to hear from me, her only granddaughter.

2) Calling my moms monthly. Again, not much going on in anyone's lives, but you never know what's going to happen and not just to someone who's older. I drive the streets every day. I could be the one who leaves this world far too soon. So yeah. Monthly phone calls to say "HI" and "I love you."

3) Walk the dog three times a week. I took Rayna into the vet a few months ago for some reason or another and mentioned a limp she gave into seemingly randomly. It turns out she tore something in one of her "knee" joints and has developed arthritis. One of the ways to help combat the pain and stiffness of that, not to mention the excess weight she's carrying, is to get her on an exercise regimen. Plus I could stand to be a little more active at the end of my day, so Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are the days I'll take Rayna for a walk. These are all days I'm at home--so instead of driving home from work, I'll walk the dog. Good for her, good for me. Now if the temperatures would warm up just a little.


4) Cook & eat better. Honestly, we're doing okay. Not great, but okay. We usually eat fish once a week and chicken every one to two weeks. It's the "scrounge" days that get us, so I guess that means planning another one or two healthier-ish meals on a weekly basis. Maybe incorporate chicken weekly. Maybe adding a pork-based meal weekly as well. With leftovers, at least six out of seven days ought to be covered, right?

And the last carryover goal is...

5) Re-institute the cleaning plan. All I have to do is dig out the box of index cards, re-sort them, and get started. There's just so many other more fun things to be doing than cleaning. :0) I guess until I can afford a cleaning lady, I'm it, eh?

As for new or similar/adjusted goals, let's see...

6) Work on my writing career--such as it is. I'm not looking to be a New York Times Bestseller or support DH and myself with my writing, but there are a lot of areas to improve upon and that need my attention. The sub-list is as follows:

a) publish books 5-8 this year. Books 5 and 6 are written. They just need final revisions and formatting. Books 7 has been started, but I'm not very far along. Book 8 has characters and a vague plot line.
b) spend some time on marketing the series and the books.
c) enter a contest or two to increase readership.
d) choose an aspect of my writing to work on and, you know, work on it.

*There are probably a few more things, but they're vague notions at the moment.

7)  Now that I've finally reached my weight goal and have maintained that weight for three months, it's time to work on a different aspect of my physical health.

As a side note, I officially started my journey in January of 2012. It took me just under five years. I knew it was going to take a while; I was in it for the long haul, and I never got really discouraged. YAY me. :0)

My new endeavor is to reduce fat--not weight--just fat. I have way too many jiggly spots and losing weight does not automatically mean you've lost fat. Just as gaining muscle does not mean you've lost fat. Fat doesn't turn into muscle. They are made up of two different things. I started the fat burning process once I reached the weight goal and made a bit of progress, but my cruise and holiday hiatus has reversed the process a little. Again, come January 2, it's back to work and back to a stricter diet for a time.

8) Now I can't reach this next goal without DH, but I'm putting it on here anyway because he mentioned wanting to while on the cruise. And that's take dance lessons... DH took ballroom dance lessons many moons ago before I'd met him and he enjoyed them a lot. I just think it'd be fun and then we can dance at family events or on next year's cruise or even just go out dancing.

9) Do more crafts! This was on this goal list a couple of years ago and I didn't do much better, but I always get nostalgic for my craftier days around the holidays. I've been cross stitching some small hockey related things, so I need to keep on going. I also have some other, larger projects rolling around in my brain. And maybe I can get a head start on next year's ornament and make something decent, not only for my kids but for my close circle of writer peeps who also get ornaments each year. Another friend of mine (shout-out to N!) does felt crafts and she's made me some lovely felt ornaments the last couple of years. That might be a fun new craft to try.

10) Take ballet and/or ice skating lessons. Part of this stems from the "be more active" mind set, but also from a get-more-flexible and build-up-stamina thought process in mind of staying healthy and active as long as possible as I face my 50th birthday this year. Also, they look fun, and the ice skating, of course, stems from my new-found love of hockey.


11) And my fluffy goal for the year--attend more STARS games. I'll say five more games between now and the end of the season in early April. Fingers crossed they make it to the playoffs and that I can afford a playoff ticket. :0) Then we'll say three games once the new season begins in October. So eight Stars games in 2018. And if I travel to a city that has a hockey team, chances are I'll buy tickets to a game if there's one being played while I'm there.


So there you have it. A decently ambitious list. How about you? Have you got a goal or two on the record for 2018? Do share.

So going into the holidays, I'm not gonna sweat the temptation of treats. I've reached my target weight, I'm maintaining that weight just fine, and I CAN EAT TORTILLAS AGAIN!!

As long as I keep up with my basic exercise regimen, I'm going to enjoy holiday treats within reason. In other words, I'm not going to turn down a cookie or two--I just won't eat a dozen. I'll eat more protein and vegetables than I will rolls and sweet treats, but I will still have them. I mean, life is challenging enough as it is and there's no reason to turn something that makes life enjoyable.

As for the tortillas, Mission has a carb-smart brand and they are delicious. The Lavash bread is fine, but I love tortillas. Being able to enjoy them again without the carb guilt is fantastic!



The one thing I haven't had for way too long is my favorite pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. There's a very real possibility that if faced with that in cake or cupcake form, I will cave like a cheap house of cards and devour the whole thing. Perhaps, though, if they're made for the holidays and available to others, I'll be able to resist temptation!


What one food item is your downfall??