One more day...

Well, this is my last day of drops.  I officially made my goal weight this morning thanks the advice of a young friend on Facebook, to drink more water. Thanks Adah!!  I was pretty excited this morning when I got on the scale as I had utterly given up hope of making it.  I had to keep myself from just quitting altogether. I was pretty discouraged.  But today is a new day and despite the rain and gloom outside, it's all sunshine in here.  So today is the last official drops day and then the 3 ugly days of the diet but no drops.  You can do it!!!

I've been praying a lot about being able to stick to my diet, that I wouldn't be like Esau and throw it all away for a morsel of meat... or cheesecake, or macaroni and cheese or mashed potatoes and gravy.  It's really been pretty easy these last few times.  I've not really had the bad moments like I did the first time.  

I almost ran out of drops but ordered them in time from Northoods Massage Therapy (http://www.northwoodsmassage.com/)  He has them cheaper than anywhere else I had found online.  They are only $20 for a 2 ounce bottle.  I had bought some for this last session from Vitacost that were not homeopathic.  I misread the ad and thought they were.  They were $25 and the shipping and handling was free so I thought as long as I was ordering vitamins, I'd get them but it was a 1 ounce bottle and they were not homeopathic and despite their claims, they were no better than what I had been taking.  Well I still had a bit of the HCG from Northwoods at work so I would take morning and lunch time from that bottle at work and then the other HCG at night but I found no difference... except they are more than double the price!!!  I am most grateful for his  generous attitude to keep the price down.

I have the exciting task today of going Thanksgiving Dinner shopping today.  I'm going to make a couple of ducks for my mom who isn't too fond of Turkey for Thanksgiving.  Since I'm doing my dinner on Friday, that will give me time to go over to her place on Thanksgiving Day and spend some time with her and sit and chat for a while.  Wish my sister and my daughter and her family could all be here too.  Nothing a lot of money wouldn't take care of... 

I suppose to win the lottery, you'd actually have to buy a ticket or coupon or whatever it is you buy.  Maybe I should get a second job?  Wonder how you get that job where you just stand there and say, "Welcome to Wal-Mart?"  I think I'm about old enough to get by with it.  Wonder what it pays?

Coming Along

Well one more week of dieting is all I get in before Thanksgiving.  It almost sounds like I'm disappointed to stop but I was hoping to hit a certain mark on the scale before I left off... the likelihood of acheiving that goal is looking pretty dicey.  I suppose I could just blow off Thanksgiving and make a top your own salad bar for Thanksgiving but I'm thinking the family would turn into the indians and I'd be Colonel Custer... They're expecting a full blown turn out with all the fixin's... Turkey, Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, gallons of gravy, Sweet Potato Casserole with Candied Pecans, Corn Pudding, Green Bean Casserole, Cranberry Sauce, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie and Pecan Pie with mounds of Whipped Cream and all of us in a diabetic coma after a fabulous feeding frenzy.  It's no wonder I got fat.

I'm not sure how I'll do on turkey day as far as sticking with the maintenance but if I need to, I guess I can do a steak day on Friday... or well, actually, I think we're going to have our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday since all my kids are going to their in-laws first and they come to my house already stuffed.  I suggested to my elder son last night that maybe they'd rather have dinner on Friday?  He seemed good with the idea.  That gives me Thursday to cook and set a nice table... etc.  So I'm not quite done yet.  I was really hoping to drop twenty pounds this time, which I probably have if you consider the weight I put on at the Feast... about 5 lbs.  But all the food there was phenomenal.  I even tried to do a steak day there but it was crazy busy and everything revolved around the meals. So I was hoping to be a little further along by now but we'll see how the week plays out.

 Here is me when I first started and me now.  There is a bit of change visible if I put them side by side.

That's pretty encouraging.  

I had sort of hit a wall for about a week where I'd lose 2 lbs and then the next day I had gained them back.  Once I even lost it again and then in the morning, I had put on about 5 lbs.  But I knew I wasn't cheating and that eventually, there would be a break but it really got into the way of my goal weight I'd set... I was really hoping to be down by a full 100 lbs before the weight loss contest started again next year.  Well, no matter.  I'm a long way from svelte.  I'd really like to be out of the morbid obesity range, though.

Tuesday Erin and I are supposed to go to the Monet exhibit at the St. Louis Art Museum.  I got free tickets through work for a corporate evening.  Erin was an art major and I thought she'd really enjoy going with me.  I just love his paintings.  It's quite amazing how his best works were done as his eyesight dimmed from cataracts, much like Beethoven's greatest works were written when he was stone deaf.  He was called an impressionist and his works were not popular in the beginning but I love the feathery texture of his scenes, the vibrant colors he puts in a sunset and the way he paints a flower.  I often ponder, how does an impressionist know what it's going to look like at a distance when he's right up by the canvas as he's painting it?  I'm not artistic at all but I do appreciate that others can create such beauty out of a several pots of color.

   

Bedroom Banshee

It was the middle of the night.  A storm was raging outside.  The lightening was flashing on the curtains, thunder was rattling the windows and the wind howled eerily.  Everyone had long since retired for the night when my youngest son padded into the room in his yellow blanket footed sleeper, carrying his doll and sucking on his pacifier.  He reached his little chubby hand up over the side of the bed and patted my husband on his cheek. 

"Daddy!"  he said in an alarmed voice.  "I'm scared."

Imagining it was a ploy to avoid sleeping in his own bed, my husband told him there was nothing to be afraid of, picked him up and explained that storms were just a part of nature.  He held him a few moments to comfort him and then sent him back to bed.

"He could get in bed with us." I said sleepily.

"No, I don't want to start that again." He said, as we respectively recalled the last time he  had slept with us.  He spun around all night like a compass in the Bermuda Triangle.  And then there was all the kicking, scratching, and thrashing about as we both struggled just to stay on the bed.

We were just getting back to sleep when I heard, smack, smack, smack. SMACK, SMACK, SMACK.

"Daddy!" the lightning flashed and I could see his big eyes widen in fright as he spoke around the pacifier in garbled words, "Daddy, I'm really scared," he mouthed around his pacifier.

My husband groaned.  "I'll get him," I said.

"No!" he said a little too firm.  "Sam, Son, what is it you're afraid of?"

"I hear noises." 

My husband sat up and explained about thunder and lightening, ionization, electricity, the necessity of rain, the protection of God and anything else he could think of that would appease a frightened little boy during a thunder storm.  "Now Sam," he said, "you go on back to bed.  There is nothing to be afraid of.  I'm right next door.  Nothing can get to your room without coming past mine."

Sam wiggled out of his daddy's arms, holding his doll, sucking rather noisily on his pacifier and padded bravely off back to bed… with the renewed confidence of his Father's assurance of protection and vigilant attendance to the least offense.

Five minutes later Sam came running into the bedroom, this time the pacifier was yanked out of his mouth with a loud pop and the doll had been dropped to the floor along the way and left to its fate.  "DAD!!!  MY BED IS SCARING ME.l"

My husband's patience was nearly at an end.  "Sam!  There is NOTHING to be afraid of.  He stood up, yanked Sammy up impatiently and they headed off down the hall.  About 15 seconds later, as curiosity got the better of me, I got up in time to see both of them backing back away from the bedroom into the hall.  My husband, a little disconcerted, looked over his shoulder and said quietly to me, "come here"

He, Sam and I crept back down the hall. By now the twins had gotten up to see what the commotion was.  

As I reached the room, Sam, feeling far braver with his whole family behind him, led the way saying, "See, see." Sure enough, the bed was literally floating around the room and dreadful howls were emanating from it.  It was like something from the Amityville Horror movie.  We all huddled together in the doorway,  staring at the aberration while I fought the urge to imagine Sam's head twisting around 360° and heaving projectile vomit.

Sammy, pointed at the bed with his chubby little finger and said wetly from the sides of his reinstated Binky,

"See." Steve picked him up to keep him back from the floating bed.

My elder son, pushed past us unnoticed, intrigued by the anomaly.  He knelt down, peering under the bed, hoping to catch a glance at the howling banshee levitating the bed.

"Dad, LOOK"

My husband realizing Danny was in the room quickly handed off Sam to me and bolted in the room to yank him up and out but as he knelt down, he began to laugh.

Our old border collie had become frightened by the storm and had wedged himself under Sam's bed but when he discovered he was unable to get back out again, he began to howl.  Unable to crawl out from under the bed, he kept trying to stand up.

Sensing the hope of immediate rescue, his moaning stopped and the bed settled back down.  My husband lifted the bed, the dog waddled out, glaring at the incompetent oafs that were supposed to take care of him as we leaned on each other laughing until we were too weak to stand any longer and finally retreated to our respective beds. 

Round Three with HCG

Okay, here I am again, starting up my third round of drops.  Actually, I've already done a week of drops and have lost about 13 lbs but if you subtract where I was BEFORE I went on vacation, then I suppose I've lost about 6... not including the weight I gained at the Feast of Tabernacles and the load days... 

My friend Kay told me that it gets easier and I was pretty skeptical but she's right.  It does get easier.  I guess the first time, your whole life is centered around meals and especially if you love to cook and to taste your wares, like me, then its such a culture shock to suddenly be reduced to two tiny meals with no snacks.  How can you survive that?  I think it wasn't just a matter of being hungry as it was a matter of adjusting to the changes.  

Speaking of which, the trees are really changing and the colors are so vivid this year.  I love fall but hate what comes after it.  I'm not fond of winter or tromping through snow or navigating my car over icy roads or shivering or dressing in layers.  Big Mama sure don't need to pile on layer upon layer to further accentuate an already portly frame.  Three layers and a coat and I can't even fasten the seat belt.  Then I get to work and spend the whole day deleting and re-adding the layers as they seem unable to find a happy medium to the thermostat.  The leaves are so pretty but they do always carry and air of foreboding and the threat of all things dreary.  

And that reminds me, I still have my frozen strawberries with Vanilla Cream Stevia to eat.  Yea!