I went to see my doctor, who told me my low blood pressure doesn't seem to be arising from any medical problem, and to drink licorice tea (to raise my blood pressure) and eat more salt (to keep it elevated).
I felt an increase in energy after the first cup of tea, and felt like a fog had lifted from my brain, that I hadn't even realized was there. For quite some time, I've been exhausted at the end of the work day, with really sore eyes, but thought that I always had been tired at the end of the work day and that I needed new glasses. Turns out, I just needed more blood flowing to my brain and eyes. It's really like a miracle.
Even on weekends, I've woken up feeling exhausted, and had o push must to get anything done. This morning I awake, full of energy, despite having gotten home at 1am from A Bonnie Raitt concert. Before breakfast, I'd cleaned the two upstairs bathrooms thoroughly. Around lunch time, I started feeling exhausted and bought that maybe I'd just sit around and read for the afternoon, and then I realized--I need more tea. So I brewed another cup, and my energy level is back! Wow--I'm going to have a whole new life!
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Sunday, June 10, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
It's Official: I'm No Longer Overweight!
Wow--that took a long, long time. I set the goal of being below 155 after I broke my arm and my leg, which was 2 years ago. Not eating after dinner is the key for me. Snacking in the evening has been a normal part of my life for many years--particularly if I'm hungry, which I am nearly every evening. I'm a very good follower of rules, so the fact that I have a rule that there needs to be 12 hours between my evening meal and breakfast makes not snacking after dinner easy. It's harder for me when there aren't clear cut meals.
I rented a place called Popcorn Noir for a company party tomorrow. It's a very cool place. It's a movie theatre where they don't charge you for the movies--they charge you for food and drink. That way they don't have to pay for the movies. The movie we're going to be showing is "The Big Lewbowski." if you haven't seen it, you should. It's classic Coen brothers--extremely funny, with a great cast. Liz and I watched it sometime in the last year, and I'd forgotten some of the cast members, like Phillip Seymour Hoffman in an early role.
But the point is, I'm going to be eating a lot of popcorn. I almost have to, don't you think, at a place called Popcorn Noir.
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I rented a place called Popcorn Noir for a company party tomorrow. It's a very cool place. It's a movie theatre where they don't charge you for the movies--they charge you for food and drink. That way they don't have to pay for the movies. The movie we're going to be showing is "The Big Lewbowski." if you haven't seen it, you should. It's classic Coen brothers--extremely funny, with a great cast. Liz and I watched it sometime in the last year, and I'd forgotten some of the cast members, like Phillip Seymour Hoffman in an early role.
But the point is, I'm going to be eating a lot of popcorn. I almost have to, don't you think, at a place called Popcorn Noir.
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Sunday, May 27, 2012
New biking shoes
Last week I was filling our tires before going for a ride, and the inside of the valve on one of Liz's tires exploded into the garage. I completely cleaned the garage looking for it(I wish I had before and after pictures), to no avail. So we headed to the bike shop for the $16 repair. $400 later, we left with all sorts of new bike gear, including a new pair of biking shoes for me. Note to self, avoid the bike shop in the future.
I didn't need new bike shoes, but they looked so cool and high tech. The salesperson convinced me that my speed would increase. I didn't believe her, but it was enough to close the deal. I used to get new roller blades every couple of years in order to increase my speed, and these shoes have a closure like roller blades, so what could I do. Here they are in all their glory:
They had to special order them, so I didn't get them till Thursday. I immediately went out and was pleased to record my fastest time of the season at 1 hour and 2 minutes. When I came home to tell Liz, she admitted that she could be biking faster, but stayed behind me because she thought I'd be mad if she passed me. Well that upset me. I don't want Liz holding herself back in any way because of what she thinks I might think. But also, if Liz went faster, my speed would pick up too. So when we went out on Saturday, I challenged Liz to go as fast as she could to see if we could get under an hour.
I was amazed how fast Liz was going. Her training at Fitness Together is really having an impact. Liz has always been faster than me going up hills--whether it was running, roller blading, or biking. But I was faster than her on flats and especially going downhill, because Liz has had a fear of losing control going too fast down hills. So when Liz got ahead of me going up hill and I couldn't catch her on the flats, I figured I'd catch her on the downhills. But our trikes are so stable, Liz now feels comfortable going fast down hill. I caught her once on the way out, but she passed me almost immediately and that was it--she was gone. And how did we do, you might ask:
We not only went under an hour, we took 10 minutes off our normal time. Amazing!!! Now I'd like to get down to 45 minutes.
Hey, those new shoes were a great investment!!!
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I didn't need new bike shoes, but they looked so cool and high tech. The salesperson convinced me that my speed would increase. I didn't believe her, but it was enough to close the deal. I used to get new roller blades every couple of years in order to increase my speed, and these shoes have a closure like roller blades, so what could I do. Here they are in all their glory:
They had to special order them, so I didn't get them till Thursday. I immediately went out and was pleased to record my fastest time of the season at 1 hour and 2 minutes. When I came home to tell Liz, she admitted that she could be biking faster, but stayed behind me because she thought I'd be mad if she passed me. Well that upset me. I don't want Liz holding herself back in any way because of what she thinks I might think. But also, if Liz went faster, my speed would pick up too. So when we went out on Saturday, I challenged Liz to go as fast as she could to see if we could get under an hour.
I was amazed how fast Liz was going. Her training at Fitness Together is really having an impact. Liz has always been faster than me going up hills--whether it was running, roller blading, or biking. But I was faster than her on flats and especially going downhill, because Liz has had a fear of losing control going too fast down hills. So when Liz got ahead of me going up hill and I couldn't catch her on the flats, I figured I'd catch her on the downhills. But our trikes are so stable, Liz now feels comfortable going fast down hill. I caught her once on the way out, but she passed me almost immediately and that was it--she was gone. And how did we do, you might ask:
We not only went under an hour, we took 10 minutes off our normal time. Amazing!!! Now I'd like to get down to 45 minutes.
Hey, those new shoes were a great investment!!!
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Monday, May 21, 2012
10%
I've read a number of places that if you lose 10% of your body weight, it is a significant improvement to your health (but apparently not your grammar). I've now lost 17 pounds, which is 10% from where I started. Just .8 of a pound and I'm officially not over-weight (although you wouldn't know it from all the rolls of fat hanging out here and there).
I broke my commitment to Mark Saturday night. We went to the Blue Heron--my favorite restaurant-- and they had Dog Fish Head on tap. I decided to celebrate my 17 pound weight loss and had two beers. They tasted fabulous. But the next day I was so draggy, I don't know how I managed to ever drink. I didn't want to do anything. Bennett declared me a boring old lady, which was accurate. I finally forced myself out for a bike ride in the lat afternoon. The whole way out I thought about turning around. At least the second half of the ride was fun because I wasn't wasting energy thinking about whether to continue or not.
I had an amazing change since the cleanse. I'm used to being hungry--it just feels like a normal way to be, rather than a problem I need to address immediately with food. The one day since the cleanse when I wasn't hungry at dinner time, I really didn't want dinner, so I just made a smoothie. I'm really hoping I can make that a long-term change.
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I broke my commitment to Mark Saturday night. We went to the Blue Heron--my favorite restaurant-- and they had Dog Fish Head on tap. I decided to celebrate my 17 pound weight loss and had two beers. They tasted fabulous. But the next day I was so draggy, I don't know how I managed to ever drink. I didn't want to do anything. Bennett declared me a boring old lady, which was accurate. I finally forced myself out for a bike ride in the lat afternoon. The whole way out I thought about turning around. At least the second half of the ride was fun because I wasn't wasting energy thinking about whether to continue or not.
I had an amazing change since the cleanse. I'm used to being hungry--it just feels like a normal way to be, rather than a problem I need to address immediately with food. The one day since the cleanse when I wasn't hungry at dinner time, I really didn't want dinner, so I just made a smoothie. I'm really hoping I can make that a long-term change.
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Monday, May 14, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
We Did It!
Today is the last day of the cleanse! We made it through the preparation week, and the 3 weeks of the cleanse. The hardest day for both of us was the first Saturday. Part of what made it hard was just being hungry for so many days. But it was also that we had a couple of juices that we really didn't like, the garlic we were eating was upsetting both of our stomachs, and I was constipated. Not a pretty situation all in all.
But we got used to being hungry, our stomachs shrunk, we cut out the raw garlic, I added different forms of fiber to our diets, and we figured out which recipes to avoid.
In some ways, being on the cleanse was probably easier than trying to figure out how to eat healthily and in the right proportions after it's done. I was playing some game on my iPad tonight and an ad came up for Flixster that featured a tub of popcorn. I've seen that ad many times, but tonight, it made my mouth water. I love popcorn, and popcorn is now back within reach. My brother-in-law Berny once said that my sister Barb could eat her weight in popcorn and I adopted that as an apt description of myself. I can make Liz and I each a giant bowl of popcorn, and I can eat mine and whatever Liz couldn't finish. I haven't had popcorn since the film festival.
My next temptation will be tomorrow night. I'm going to see the Celtics play the 76ers in the first game of the second round of the playoffs. I'm going with Bob and Alexandra and finding a place to eat that doesn't veer too far from how I have been eating may be a challenge. We have to be careful about how we come out of the cleanse so as not to upset our systems. But really, wouldn't a beer and popcorn hit the spot!
I'll do my official weigh-in in the morning, but as of today, I've lost 15 pounds. Just 2.6 pounds and I'll officially not be over-weight, although I'll still be about 18 pounds over my ideal weight.
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But we got used to being hungry, our stomachs shrunk, we cut out the raw garlic, I added different forms of fiber to our diets, and we figured out which recipes to avoid.
In some ways, being on the cleanse was probably easier than trying to figure out how to eat healthily and in the right proportions after it's done. I was playing some game on my iPad tonight and an ad came up for Flixster that featured a tub of popcorn. I've seen that ad many times, but tonight, it made my mouth water. I love popcorn, and popcorn is now back within reach. My brother-in-law Berny once said that my sister Barb could eat her weight in popcorn and I adopted that as an apt description of myself. I can make Liz and I each a giant bowl of popcorn, and I can eat mine and whatever Liz couldn't finish. I haven't had popcorn since the film festival.
My next temptation will be tomorrow night. I'm going to see the Celtics play the 76ers in the first game of the second round of the playoffs. I'm going with Bob and Alexandra and finding a place to eat that doesn't veer too far from how I have been eating may be a challenge. We have to be careful about how we come out of the cleanse so as not to upset our systems. But really, wouldn't a beer and popcorn hit the spot!
I'll do my official weigh-in in the morning, but as of today, I've lost 15 pounds. Just 2.6 pounds and I'll officially not be over-weight, although I'll still be about 18 pounds over my ideal weight.
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Saturday, May 5, 2012
Two weeks down, 1 to go
Today was a very hard day to stay on the cleanse. We went to Grace and Melinda's engagement party. We thought the party was supposed to start at 2, but it started at 3, which really affected our meal plan for the day. We had smoothies for breakfast and brought smoothies for dinner, and Melinda said her brother would grill us chicken, which we'd have for lunch. Well, it's one thing to delay our only meal of the day from noon to 2, delaying it to 3 was really challenging. On top of that, when we got to the party, the chicken and salad hadn't arrived, so we were surrounded by people acting chips and salsa and couldn't eat. Liz couldn't stand it and ate one chip. I was impressed--if I'd eaten one chip, many more would have followed.
We allowed about 3 seconds to pass from the time the chicken and salad arrived until we filled our plates. I have to say, that chicken was really delicious!
It was fun to meet Melinda's family--her mother is one of 11 kids, so there were tons of aunts and uncles there. Her aunts and uncles have small families, though, so there werent many cousins. Our family, by contrast, is a giant pyramid. There are seven in my generation, 14 in the next, and 12 so far in the next--and that generation is only going to grow.
Here's a picture of my nephew Jay with his wife Liz, Liz, Grace, Melinda's mom Peggy, me, Melinda, and Melinda's brother Chris.
Before we went to the party, we went to Storm King, a sculpture garden nearby on 500 acres. We love Andy Goldsberry and new he had a stone wall there, but had no idea of all the cool sculptures that were there--and most of them are huge. Here's a section of the stone wall:
And here's a sculpture called the Three Legged Budha:
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We allowed about 3 seconds to pass from the time the chicken and salad arrived until we filled our plates. I have to say, that chicken was really delicious!
It was fun to meet Melinda's family--her mother is one of 11 kids, so there were tons of aunts and uncles there. Her aunts and uncles have small families, though, so there werent many cousins. Our family, by contrast, is a giant pyramid. There are seven in my generation, 14 in the next, and 12 so far in the next--and that generation is only going to grow.
Here's a picture of my nephew Jay with his wife Liz, Liz, Grace, Melinda's mom Peggy, me, Melinda, and Melinda's brother Chris.
Before we went to the party, we went to Storm King, a sculpture garden nearby on 500 acres. We love Andy Goldsberry and new he had a stone wall there, but had no idea of all the cool sculptures that were there--and most of them are huge. Here's a section of the stone wall:
And here's a sculpture called the Three Legged Budha:
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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