bethsblog

Thankful...

...in advance for the billion calories I am going to eat day after tomorrow....
For my wonderful husband who brings home the bacon so I can fry it up in the pan...
For my fabulous family who will be traveling from far and wide to celebrate the holiday with us.

I'll be on blog vacation until around Dec. 8. This week I'm up to my eyebrows in house-guests and pie dough. After Thanksgiving I'll be heading directly to Ann Arbor to do Christmas-y stuff with Amy and the grand-kids.

Wishing you a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving.

"Keep it simple."

FAMISHED!

I've been on the Mayo Clinic Healthy Food Pyramid Diet for one week now. I've lost a pound or two. It's hard to tell from the up and down of the scale from day to day, but my jeans are definitely looser.

How do I feel? Basically... famished. Last night I crashed and burned in the ice cream and cookie department so I think I'm also suffering a from a little treat deprivation...

On Saturday, I spoke to my son-in-law; a diet-fitness enthusiast, who 3 years ago, tackled his post college pudgies and transformed himself into a buff tri-athlete. His assessment: 1400 calories just ain't enough. I shouldn't be walking around starving. And weight fluctuations on the scale, from day to day can be confusing. He keeps a spread-sheet of his weight... that gives him a more accurate picture. He said that a pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories, so it takes time to get weight off. It really helped to talk to him.

So I'm going to mix Stephen's advise with a little of my own and face the battle of the bulge with renewed enthusiasm.

I'm going to listen to my body. Watch my portions. (Thanks to Mayo, I now know what a portion is!) Have a couple small treats here and there. And make sure that I eat enough to keep from starving. Eventually my body will seek it's level... it might take months rather than weeks... but that's okay.

I know this: for many, it's easier to follow a rote program. There are a million diets out there that profess to be the answer and countless dieters looking for the perfect plan. But I have always been a renegade and have reserved the right to pick and choose my truths... most of the time I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants.

Making decisions based on what's needed moment to moment might seem to be the harder way, but for me, it's much more vital and creative, and way more fun!

"Keep it simple."

Simply Delicious

Roast Turkey, Giblet Gravy,  Mashed Potato,  Sage and Onion Stuffing, Savory Roasted Butternut Squash with Thyme and Honey, Green Beans Almondine, Cranberry-Pear Sauce with White Raisins and Cognac, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream...that's the menu for our upcoming feast... mmm... mmm.

Last year, my daughter, Amy, and I were both following the  Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I subjected my very patient family to a meal that was entirely "SCD legal". (Stuffing made with almond bread, pureed mushroom gravy, faux mashed potato made with cauliflower... actually, we did have one concession the "normals"... those lovely crescent rolls.) This year I'm dividing the meal between foods that comply with the SCD, (above, in red) and several grain/starch based items for the "normals". Amy, who still follows the sugar-free- starch-free SCD to control her Crohn's, assures me that she will have plenty to eat!

"Keep it simple."

Power Surge

Ah the joys of caloric deprivation. Two days ago, I started a Mayo Clinic low-fat diet with the goal of losing 10 lbs. of belly fat in the next couple months. I was starving all day yesterday, and in spite of my best efforts, I ended up eating nearly like 1800 calories, but at least I was grabbing lower fat/calorie foods for snacks like fresh fruit, instead of a handful of nuts or a slab of cheese. By bedtime I couldn't take it any longer and ended up scarfing a bowl of cereal... I was ravenous and I couldn't go to bed hungry.

Another little wrinkle... after sleeping wonderful 8 hour stretches each night like a veritable rock since having my thyroid medication changed 2 weeks ago, yesterday and today I woke up at 5 a.m. and could not get back to sleep. I did manage, however, to get 6 straight hours of solid sleep. Today, I'm going to upgrade to the 1600-calorie plan... maybe my caloric cut was too drastic because I woke up starving... If increasing my caloric intake a little for the next few days doesn't help, I'll call my doc to see if I might be taking too much thyroid medication.

So what to do in the early morning hours when all's dark and quiet and the squirrels are still snoozing. Blog, of course. Or I could work crossword puzzles, my grandmother always woke up way before dawn and that's what she would do. Or better yet, I could start addressing my Christmas cards.

"Keep it simple."

Holding the Mayo

I've been Armour thyroid for 2 weeks, and have experienced huge improvements in body pain, digestion, sleep, and over all mood, energy, and enthusiasm. In addition to all these good things, I had hoped to see a little bit of weight loss, but alas, I the scale hasn't budged downward even one little bit.

Maybe it's on account of my sunnier disposition, but the other day, something went click in my brain, and I decided that I want to loose about 10 lbs. (Great timing with the holidays and all!) My weight still seems to be slowly creeping upward and I really don't want to grow out of my current clothes. Plus, I'm getting tired of the couple inches of pudding jiggling on my belly. I'm at the teetering brink of a BMI that is considered overweight, and I also know that carrying this extra weight ain't exactly good for my overall health.

So after the brain click, I did some mouse clicking and found this over at Mayo Clinic's site.

They have this nifty Healthy Weight Pyramid, and a calculator that helps set up a diet goal... I think the calories they recommend for me to lose weight: 1200, is a bit low, so I'm going with 1400 for starters. That's 600 calories a day less than is recommended for me to maintain my current weight, and I read here that in order to loose 1-2 lbs of fat per week, one needs to set up a caloric deficit of about 500 calories per day. So I'm good to go.

The other nice thing is that lately, I've been able to tolerate non-glutinous grains very well, and I can even have a little wheat once in a while, with no ill effects so I should be okay with the modest amounts of grains and starches on the diet.

I'll probably let myself relax and enjoy over Thanksgiving, but overall, I've not been this motivated in a long time... I'm getting on board while my ship is in.

"Keep it simple."

Those Infernal Christmas Cards

For 35 years I've sent out from 60-100 Christmas cards to friends and family every year. Way back when, I used to write a personal note in each card, and writing them took about the whole month of November. I ALWAYS mailed out my cards the day after Thanksgiving. That way I got to be the first one to show up in everybody's mail-box! Yippee for mee!

When my girls were little they would draw a picture for the card and off to the printer we'd go. In those days, I started writing one of those dreaded Christmas letters... with all the holiday hullabaloo and two kids underfoot, there was no time to write individual notes, yet so much fun family stuff to report! At least I hand-signed the cards.

During the 1990's I had two gorgeous teenage daughters around who loved to pose for glamour shots. Those were the years of the family photo, plus, since I had begun pursuing a career in visual art, I designed the cover for the Christmas card. And yes, there was still the dreaded newsletter, which Gary and I took turns writing on alternate years.

This year is different. I'm almost all digital... hopefully, not terminally cold and calculating. But I uploaded an image, wrote a newsletter, figured out my greeting, selected a font and text color, typed in our signature and used my nifty Zazzle site to put it all together into a shiny Christmas card. Then I pushed the send button and off it went. Aside from one back and forth with a color problem, it was about as simple as you can get. All the cards need now is an address, a return mail sticker, and a stamp!

Well I guess I could go with computer generated address labels, but that's where I draw the line.

"Keep it simple."

I'm so excited!

It snowed last night, blanketing our town in about 4 inches of the beautiful white stuff. Really puts me in the holiday mood! Can't wait until the family arrives next week for Thanksgiving. I'm hosting dinner for 11 this year. Each family is bringing a pumpkin pie and a bottle of wine. My sis'll take charge of the mashed potatoes; my daughters'll bake the rolls. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without those fat laden Pillsbury Crescents, and this year 3-year-old granddaughter Sophia gets to help bake them!

"Keep it simple."

Keep it simple...

...was my New Year's resolution for 2008. Lately I've been asking myself: how'm  I doin'... especially in light of the fact that the holidays are bearing down, with the capacity to add layers and layers of complexity to my life...a  life which since the first of the year, has, in many ways, been simpler, and in other ways more complicated.

So for the next several weeks, I'm going to dedicate my blog to a serious investigation of what indeed, for me, will make the holiday season feel simpler, and hopefully more meaningful. Since time during the holidays is of the essence, brevity will be my guide... (No more than two paragraphs... maybe.)

"Keep it simple." 

finis!

As usual, it took me a little longer to finish up than I thought, but today, I did it! Got the portrait of my granddaughter Sophia done with time to spare before the entry due date. It's a transparent watercolor, based on a photo taken by my daughter... Yes, Amy, the painting can eventually hang in Sophia's bedroom! Before I can part with it though, I'll be submitting it to the Michigan Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition, which as luck would have it will be held at the Muskegon Museum of Art this Spring.

Here's my sleepy little sweetie:

"Sophia's Rest"  17" x 26"

 

"Keep it simple."

Armour Update

I've been on Armour Thyroid now for a week, and am feeling "different": more mentally focused and enthusiastic, less pain in my hands, feet and ribcage, and I am sleeping very well.

Sleep difficulties began about 5 years ago, when menopause hit me hard with hot flashes that would wake me up about every 20 minutes all night. Often I'd be wide awake about 4 am and that would be it. I'd walk around in an exhausted stupor all day, and then still not be able to sleep at night. I started Premarin and I've been sleeping fairly well ever since... except when I travel.

Over the weekend we drove to see friends in Ohio, and I fell asleep in the car (I was not driving) several times. Unusual, because I never fall asleep during the day. I always have trouble sleeping in a bed other than my own. I roll and toss all night unless I take a sleeping pill. But not this time! I slept well and deeply every night, while at our friends' house without the use of Ambien.

My hope is, with Armour, my thyroid levels will gradually normalize. I also hope that the daytime sleepiness will pass. Maybe it's just due to weeks of sleep deprivation. I'll take the good nights sleep, however... over the past few years, I've been averaging about 6 hours of sleep per night... that's all that I can manage. I go to bed late, so as not to wake up a 4 am with nothing to do.

Maybe, in 6 weeks, when I get my thyroid blood test, if it comes out normal, then I might be able to start decreasing the Premarin.

"Keep it simple."