The Struggle Bus

​I am seriously on the struggle bus when it comes to my weight loss efforts!   This weight loss journey is tough!   Life, continual apple dumplings and stress just pull me away and I am struggling!

Apple Dumplings and Weight Loss

Yes, I am still making apple dumplings.  My recipe is perfected, however I still find myself looking at other recipes to tweak it just a bit.   I was checking out a recipe that was left in my comments and as I was scrolling I saw a recipe for caramel apple dumplings.  Jason loves apple dumplings…and he loves caramel.  Would he love them together?   I’m not sure, but someday I may have to find out.  But for now I am happy in my perfected recipe.  I will post the recipe on here in a day or two.   I’m still working on making them ‘pretty’.  I’ve learned there is an art to apple dumplings and I’m working to perfect that art.  They look better each batch!

So why am I making apple dumplings when I am struggling?   Jason likes them.  Plain and simple.  Jason is asking for them.  Should he have to suffer just because I can’t control myself?  No!  Ok.  So Im usually pretty good with not indulging…I typically eat one the first night after I make a batch and then I let the rest for him.  So it’s not all that bad. I made them last night and tried to round it out with a lower calorie meal for dinner.  Not perfect…but I still consider it a win to know that I’m not eating them every night!

The Stress is Building

Weight loss and stress just don’t mix.  Work has been absolutely crazy.  Nuts!  I’m pulled in a gazillion different directions and made to feel as if nothing I do is right. It is rough.  And that makes me want to run to the kitchen for every piece of comfort food that I can find!

Adding to the stress is the stress about this house buying venture.  I am a worrier and the thing that makes me worry the most is finances and stuff like that.   So you can just imagine what my stress levels are as we begin this process.  (Do not even mention the fact that they are saying that the interest rates are rising in March.  That just gives me cause to have hives….if my body were the type to respond to stress with hives that is!)

However, Jason and I have been praying so keep telling myself that it will all work out in the best possible way.

Eating and Weight Loss

Almost every morning this week I have set up my eating plan for the day.  I’ve gone into MyFitnessPal and entered my food that I am planning to eat that day.  I have been spot on!  For those five minutes….I do well while I’m at my desk in the morning.  But that is simply because there is no food in front of me.  But my plans have gone up in smoke each day when it comes time for lunch.  Lunch comes and that healthy lunch with lots of fruits and veggies that I planned just seems to unpalatable!  So I have eaten leftovers…a high calorie meal that we had on Monday of course.   I have managed to avoid the apple dumplings (except for last night when they were fresh and hot from the oven).  I have however had a few pieces of chocolate at night.  So it’s not typically my evenings that mess me up. It’s the leftovers for lunch that throw me over the line into eating poorly.

So what is my weight doing on the scales?  My weight did my normal weekend jump….and I have NOT seen it drop this week.   Sooo…if the scales hold true I have possibly just managed to erase every ounce of weight loss that I achieved the first few weeks of this year!  How depressing is that?  

Apple dumplings, stress and weight loss journey may not seem to go hand in hand…but those things are what makes up life.  (Or things that are very similar).   To have a life long  success at this thing called a weight loss and a healthy weight I HAVE to learn how to manage.  I know it can be done!  It’s a new day…I will be putting my food into MyFitnessPal here shortly…and today I’m vowing to stick to my plan!!!

quilting like crazy

​I have been a busy gal lately.  I’m trying to slow down a bit and I’m trying to put things in their proper order…but man life gets to flying by so fast!

Quilting

So technically I’m not actually quilting yet.  I am working on piecing a quilt top.  I like extra big blankets and quilts so I have sized this one to be king sized.   I am also hand sewing it.  Yes, I said hand sewing.  You know…needle and thread in my hand.  It has been fun and surprisingly easier to handle and do.  I can sit on the couch whilst watching tv and sew….I’ve worked on it when we were in the car waiting for kiwi while he was in with the veterinarian (no worries it was just his normal yearly check up….and he got a clean bill of health!). I can move it around with me.  Wanna be in a different room…let me just bring my quilt basket with me!   I estimate that I’ll be finished putting the top together in mid to late February and then I’ll be working on quilting.  That will be more difficult to cart with me..ok near impossible as the quilting frame I’ll be using is portable but still unwieldy.   But no matter.  I am enjoying the process. Here is a picture of what I have been working on and it will give an idea of what the quilt looks like.

2022 miles in 2022

I am hot on the trail of my yearly mile goals.  I was ahead of the game by a few miles and building on my bank of extra miles…but on Friday I felt horrible.  My headache was terrible and riding the bike was the last thing I wanted to do.  So I used some of my banked miles. But that’s ok…that’s why I bank them!  So I am doing really well with that!   5.5 miles a day isn’t really that difficult to get…not on an exercise bike!  I have been trying on week days to get about 8-10.  Weekends have been cold and icky so I haven’t been getting many miles on weekends…but the weather will turn and I’ll start getting weekend miles on the weekends which will allow me to bank even more miles!

Apple Dumplings

It came to my attention that while apple dumplings are a favorite of Jason’s that I had never made them.  Never ever ever in my life.  So I researched recipes…and I have been experimenting.  I’ve tweaked and played and I think I have the perfect recipe…now just to continue to play to find the perfect way to make them so that they are actually pretty.   

So there have been a few batches of apple dumplings made….and my oh my are they delicious!  Not the best thing for a gal trying to lose weight though!

50 in 50

So with the thought of apple dumplings how am I doing on my weight loss efforts?  Or more specifically,  how am I doing with my mission to lose 50 pounds in the year that I turn  50 years old (this year).  Well, I somehow pulled out a loss last week.  For the official weigh in I lost and that brings my official loss to 5.8 pounds for the year 2022.  So I am on track to lose the weight…my goal was an average of one pound a week.  But there is a problem.

The problem…my weekends have been off the hook with eating and desserts.  So I am in that cycle of gain all week and then spend the week trying to lose enough to at least clock a maintain.   This is NOT a good cycle!  This is not a healthy cycle!   This is very much self sabotage!   I need to get this under control!   I know that I won’t be totally successful until I stop this cycle!   I must get back to counting and tracking calories on the weekend and being strict with my ONE dessert per weekend/week rule!

So that’s the skinny on where I’m at…quilting, baking (which I love to do), riding the exercise bike and living life!

MIA

​So apparently I have been MIA for a while.  Almost 10 days with no update.   So let’s catch things up!

As I left it at my last post, I lost 5.4 pounds the first week of the year.   I followed that up with a lackadaisical week.  There was no tracking.  I kinda ate what I wanted.  Still halfway in control.   And I gained 0.4 pounds.  So a bit less than a half of a pound. 

I vowed to clean it up.  I swore up one side and down the other that I was going to do better.  And I did do…better. I tracked a little bit more.  But my water was…well I drank some!  But yeah, no where near enough.   So here I sit on the Eve of my official weigh in and just hoping to pull out a maintain.  

But that isn’t what is really floating through my head.   We are currently working on getting pre approved to buy a house.  Yup…marriage in October and now we are looking to buy a house.  I am super excited about being in my own place….and somewhere that has more space (we outgrew our apartment!).  But I absolutely dread packing and moving.  So I sit here and I have been looking at the dead weight of belongings in my life and seeing what can go to the garbage.   I have hard copies of all of my writing…keep or pitch?  I mean, I haven’t looked at the hard copies in years!  And I have them on a hard drive!  (There may be one or two things that is hand written from long long ago…but I could retype them onto my computer…scan them also just for the memory).  I have tons of dollhouses and accessories (5 dollhouses to be exact). Keep?  Well yeah, I’m keeping those.  Although admittedly I’ve thought about paring down dollhouses also!  But I’m looking at belongings and thinking about what is important.  

When I started to look at my belongings I started to think about actions and things in life that might be weighing me down.   I have kept this blog for 16 years!   (Oh my word, I think I missed my blogiversary on January 6!!).   I have no intention of letting this fall by the wayside.  This is my true cathartic place to be.  The act of writing has always been cathartic for me.  But….I think I may be paring back on my YouTube channel.  I enjoy my travel and exploration videos…but the constant pressure to put out videos is difficult.  As is the constant pressure to share my weight loss efforts on there.   Plus…let’s be honest.  I work from home.  I wear my comfy ripped up teeshirt to work…with my ratty sweatpants!   And I’m filming myself?   It bothers me.  Sooo….my YouTube isn’t going away.  It will just be when I feel like it.   I want to go back to the basics of what I truly enjoy…photography…writing. Being me.  Will I be posting about my weight loss there… maybe maybe not.  Will I be posting travel and exploration.  Maybe…maybe not.   When  we go exploring…I want my focus to be on the experience and NOT the video!   Photography fills that for me.    I’m not on here to get a gazillion readers…I wasn’t on YouTube to get a bunch of views.  I was just out there working on me putting my thoughts and emotions out there in order to make me a better person and make me happy.  And for me…right now…that means stepping back and cutting dead weight…so those hard copiesof old writing…gone!   The gazillion YouTube videos posted each month…gone.  It’s time to focus on what makes me happy and healthy!

My goals will still remain the same.  I am still pushing for 2022 miles in the year 2022!  I am still planning on working to lose 1 pound each week to lose 50 pounds in this year, the year I turn 50.  But I’ll be posting it here….more regularly as it will be my main source of accountability.  And if you have managed to stick with me through this long post and through the months of sporadic posting….thank you!

hold onto your socks!!!!

​hold onto your socks, I lost 5.4 pounds the first week of the year!   Woohoo!  I’ll take it, even if I know that it is water retention that I have most likely dropped!

The weekend following my weigh in…I did pretty good! I got my water drinking in.  My calories were under control and I seemed to maintain.  I feel as if I did. Pretty good.  My weight was up this morning, but I was up with a stomach ache in the night and have felt rough all day with a stomach ache so I’m not going to worry about todays weigh in….it’s unofficial anyway!  Yes, I still weigh daily but my official weigh in is Friday.

Whew…this is a short one.  There isn’t much to say.  The weekend was cold…rainy…icky!   We ran some errands and I went to visit a scarlet macaw that I fell in love with.  He is at a pet store and has some behavior problems and is way to high priced. But I fell in love!   So I visit!  

But that’s about all we did …errands and relax!

Happy New Year!!

​The new year is here!   2022.  I have ideas and plans and goals for this year. I’m sitting here a bit disappointed with how I ended 2021, scared at the enormity of challenges and changes for 2022 but yet excited at the same time!  So much happening (hopefully).

Disappointing End to 2021

I am ashamed to admit that I ended 2021 with a very bad mentality. I adopted the mentality that ‘January first is when I am starting’ and I went absolutely nuts with my eating. Cake?  Why yes, I’ll have a huge piece!    Candy? Of course!   Eating a candy bar at 9:30 AM, don’t mind if I do! (Yes…twice in the week leading up to the new year!). It was a free for all!   Seriously, I didn’t even step on the scale during the last two weeks of the year.  I pretty much gave up on my birthday weekend and throughout the following two weeks….until this morning, January 1.   I woke up and stepped on the scales this morning…because it’s the new year after all!  I was appalled!  7 pounds up from where I was at my birthday and 10 pounds from where I was at Thanksgiving!   What?????   How disappointing….even though I will admit that I deserve each and every one of those pounds (although I’m hoping some of that will drop quickly with proper water consumption and hydration!)

Hopes and dreams for 2022 (non weight related)

I have lots of hopes and dreams for the year 2022. We hope and dream of buying a house!  We are starting the process and hope and pray that we can make that transition this year. 

We are also hoping and dreaming of having Jason go off on his own in terms of work and work for himself in 2022.   So possibly a business starting.  (Appliance repair if you are interested in knowing what type of business).

Of course we dream of a fabulous vacation….we have a few places in mind.  Not sure what will pan out though.  We also hope to get back to New River Gorge, there are more trails to explore!

Weight loss for 2022

I am turning  50 years old in 2022.  So I have set a goal of losing 50 pounds in 2022.  50 by 50!   I would be tickled if it were more…which would put me very close to my projected goal weight.  But I’m aiming for 50….Roughly one pound a week.  Yeah I know…there are 52 weeks in a year…but 52 by 50 just doesn’t sound right!  

I am embarking upon another mile challenge for the year. I am aiming for 2022 miles for this year.  Loosely  speaking, that is  6 pounds a day.  I finished it up by mid September last year.  Let’s see what I do this year!  

I am hoping and thinking about going back to a more ‘meatless’ existence.  Not exactly vegetarian.   But just less meat!   I have been trying to incorporate more meatless meals back into my daily life.  I ate very little meat for quite a few years and was quite happy with it.  But then I started eating meat and well…I’m just not convinced that it is healthy for me!   Sooo.  That will be a shift!

So lots of changes.  Lots of plans.  Lots of dreams.  It is January first, now is the time to reach for those goals and dreams!  Let’s do it!  This is my year!!!!