Monday, October 27, 2008

This is ridiculous!

No more bake sales?

What ever happened to free will? I think we should be encouraging healthier options or smaller portions. I understand that if you take away bake sales ppl will find other ways to fundraise, but still, this is so lame!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

With a flick of the wrist

I am a label reader. Even if I know how many calories are in something I will still check out the nutritional label, things change, get reformulated, serving sizes are modified, etc. I am catching up on my google alerts and last week there was some big news apparently-- starting next year some food will start carrying a new label with info on the front of the box. Dreamed up by the ADA I wonder how useful this will be and how many products we will see this on. Hopefully a lot. When was the last time you saw someone in the grocery store reading the nutritional labels? I know I do it all the time but I can't remember the last time I saw someone else (besides M who is only looking at the sodium content) do it. Knowledge is power.

What a month!

October has been historically a very busy and sometimes stressful month for my husband and I. Lots to do and always some sort of medical issue. This month was no different. M's ear has been on the fritz and I spent some time in the hospital. Nothing too serious but it did answer some questions for me. I don't think that my knee is causing my night sweats. So that was reassuring. My WBC was more or less normal, but my ecinophils were up. Being an asthmatic that did not surprise me. I am starting to think that maybe they are hormonal. How we would regulate that so I don't wake up in a puddle of my own sweat, I have no idea, but I do see my PCP this week to follow up on that.

The knee. I was laying there last night trying to decide if the shots of synthetic joint fluid had worked or not. They made me feel like crap for the day after they were injected but then that went away and I was left searching for any sign of pain relief. I am still stiff (more so than I have been recently) and I still hurt. Alas, not sure if they did me any good but it was worth the shot.

But despite all this I still managed to enjoy October. I saw a Patriots game on my birthday we tailgated and had cake and then later on in the week I had more cake. I saw Madonna from right next to the stage and my new favorite band, Pictures and Sound. I kept up with friends and even manged to get myself across down with a ridiculously heavy bag when my car was towed out of my sisters new neighborhood. I am trying hard not to let the knee effect my quality of life but it is hard. I have no idea how I will keep this up for 10 years or so. The new OS said that if it hadn't been for the infections that he would give me a new knee asap. That was very hard to hear.

We have been spending weekends on the Cape in my grandmothers old place. Something about coming down here is good for M' ear. Sadly there is a lack of internets but there is a TV, the beach for walking and the flea market and generally a wonderful place to simply relax. I'm writing this on my iphone. Impressed?

My weight is on the high end of my comfortability range, 159-160. My plan to write it all down this month flew out the window the first weekend we came down here with no internets. I hate having to pay such close attention to it sometimes, but if I don't well, all of you who have lost weight only to regain know why I do. I asked my PCP if my eating was disordered the last time I saw her, she said what's makes you say that. Ummm, the media saying that those who keep it off are basically freaks on par with the anorexics of the world. (And no, I am not saying that anorexics are freaks, I can not imagine that struggle with food, but what I am saying is that we all have control issues, and I bristle at the MSM saying that those of us who have worked hard and figured it out are still sick.) Anyways, she said not to worry out of all of her paitents I had the best outlook and view on food that she had seen in a long time.

Tomorrow I have my first of two ServSafe classes. My intership is sponsering me for these and it is another notch in the applying to grad school belt. I got a letter from CU this month too approving my transfer credits so now I actually get to graduate officialy from college in December. I'm pricing tickets to see if I could attend that cheaply. SO crazy how long ago it was that I left Boulder and yet it feels like yesterday sometimes. So much has changed, not only my weight but my life. It all happend in the blink of an eye it seems. That's a good reason to keep on keeping on.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Saturday, October 4, 2008

October Fourth

Breakfast
Venti Iced Coffee
Apple Bran Muffin

Snack
Popcorn
Granola Bar
Dark Chocolate Squares

Dinner
Bread with Almond butter and banana
Orange beets and apple sautéed in garlic butter

And lots of sleep.

Friday, October 3, 2008

October Third

Breakfast
Berry Oat Bran Muffin
Venti Iced Coffee with Milk

Lunch
Nectarine
Almond, Dried Cranberries and Banana Chips
An ounce of each at 180, 110 and 160 calories.

Dinner
Wheat Roll with humus

Snack
Banana

And I think that is all I will probably eat today. I have slept away my day after the appointment with the new knee doctor today.

We are going to try the knee lubrication shots. It is a series of three. Kind of stings right now where he injected me but it should be better tomorrow. I brought M with me for support and so that he could hear it for himself. The guy did not mince words. I have a problem, he said. But honestly, as I expected, he is more concerned about my history of infection rather then replacing the knee. I get the feeling he wants to wait years and years. So I cross my fingers and hope these shots work b/c I am in pain. If they do work they would be administered twice a year until they no longer work for me. Honestly they don't know much about them and how they work. Reassuring.

The only other thing he suggested was a brace or a neoprene sleeve. I explained about my weightloss. He was impressed and asked a bunch of questions about it. He even asked M if he knew me when I was heavier. She was on her way down he replied. So back to the brace, they are hard for me to wear because of the extra skin on my thighs. A sleeve would simply cut me off and then roll. Not a pretty sight.

So what next? More waiting.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

October Second

Breakfast
Berry Oat Bran Muffin
Venti Iced Coffee with Milk

Lunch
2 wheat rolls from yesterday with humus
apple
chocolate sandwich cookies
These are made by Late July a Massachusetts company. I had the dark chocolate ones and for 200 calories they are the most satisfying sandwich cookies I have ever had. And I love me some sandwich cookies. M knows that Oreos are just not allowed in our house.

Dinner
Mango Chicken Salad from Qudoba,
But with no cheese or sour cream. I had black beans instead which they charged me for even though I didn't have cheese. :c( We stopped after class and brought our food home, M likes their steak tacos better than Chipotle. Anyways, the salad comes in one of those fried tortilla type bowls. I pitched that and had the salad on my own plate. Very very tasty.

Dessert
Berries with chocolate sorbet

Snack
Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar
This is my new favorite bar, Peanuts, dates and salt. That's it, and it taste like a peanut butter cookie. I was just at their website which is annoying with flash, but I see that they have a cinnamon roll flavor and a ginger snap. I need to find those.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

October First

Breakfast
Berry OatBran Muffin
Venti Iced Coffee with milk

Lunch
Salad: Lettuce, Tomatoes, Onion and Peppers
I had lunch with my mom today at her work and she shared her salad and apple with me. Much better than yesterday when I could hear the nurses talking about me like I wasn't even there. After they all left, one stayed and she asked a barrage of questions. My answers were so vague that she finally had to come out and ask if I was H's daughter. When your mom is the boss, you don't really want the whole world to know.
Half an apple
Tomato and cheese soup
They make soup for the employees every Wednesday. Home made soup is the best, but I prefer the broth based ones. This stuff was so creamy I'm sure it was more cheese than tomato.
Pretzel Twists

Dinner
Plain yogurt sweetened with agave syrup poured over berries and a pear
M ate at the office tonight, actually he brought home a pork chop covered with onions and a side of broccoli from the office. He ate the meat left the veggies. Sigh.

Late Night Snack
2 homemade wheat rolls with butter

Sometimes you just need to eat something, especially when doing chemistry homework for hours. Besides they smelled so good as they were baking. Really I was making them for sammiches, but I couldn't resist when they came out all warm.


Snack
Brown rice cucumber sushi snack pack.

Where have I been?

So all of a sudden life has gotten even busier. Did I say that in a previous post? I feel like I did. I blogress.

I started my internship this week. My wonderful mother is the Administrator of a pediatric nursing home. I need 200 hours of food related work experience. Most of her kids are on feeding tubes but some do eat by mouth. She also has me doing some special projects, like determining the cost per resident of formula and the additives. It's the vitamins and minerals that they have to add for some of these kids which is big $$$. I spent yesterday with their Dietician, working out what some of these kids need is one big math problem. Some kids only get a few hundred calories a day... I know that sounds low, but if you suffer from hypothermia, don't move and don't breath on your own you don't need much energy. They are a non for profit so no pay, but her organization is going to pay for my ServSafe class. That's later this month. I have so much to study for.

The GRE is on my mind, I don't think about numbers the way they test you. I know I am going to need some help with that but that's still a bit off. Right now I am back into the Chemistry. I am so thankful that M is taking that class with me. My TA is a nightmare, I can simply not follow this guy he makes everything so confusing and unnecessarily complicated. Why is he a TA for chemistry if his undergrad is in electrical engineering and his masters work is in biology? M could be a better TA for this class and he hasn't had any hard science since high school!

I can't believe it is October already. I turn 32 in a few weeks. Not sure what the twin sis and I will be up to that day, it's a Monday but I am hoping we will be going to a Patriots game. September flew by, seems like just yesterday I was writing down what I ate for the month. That was August, but good for me, so I'll be doing that again this month.