Dagmar, it's not getting any easier, is it If I go to bed hungry I can't fall asleep. After battling my appetite for a few weeks, I am finally having mostly deficit days. Small deficits, but I'll take it. It doesn't help that DH bought chocolates for Valentine's, but so far I have felt okay just ignoring them. I put them in his clothes closet with the peanut butter. My motivation, besides just wanting to be slim, is that my blood pressure tends to go up with my weight. It's not in the medication range yet, but I'd like it to be back to the excellent numbers it used to be!

We were given free passes to a "high tea" at Toronto's only "castle" Casa Loma. The tea was excellent and the place is quite the opulent massive structure. I intend to go back in summer to see the gardens in full bloom and to enjoy the view of the downtown skyline from the terrace.

We ate way too much at the tea but that's kind of expected. DH revealed that he didn't really want to go as he's decided to give dieting another go.

So he was delayed one day. But we had a good time and it was nice to dress up a bit. I have a whole closet full of clothes that "almost" fit so time for me to knuckle down and eat less. Adding to everything Holly has dental surgery today. I've been trying to not "anxiety eat" and it's been hard.

Dagmar

Holly got through her surgery and I realized just how tired I had been. Brought her home at 4 p.m. and I was ready for bed at 8! DH is taking a vacation week this week so he hung out with her when I went to bed. I wanted to start eating to stay awake but didn't. I will have to make that choice over and over again in the next couple of months.

Dagmar

So glad that Holly's surgery was successful. Yep, you deserve some sleep to catch up and to ward off the munchies.

Love the notion of "High Tea" at Casa Loma - had to go see its linked site to experience its wonder. Have to add it to my Bucket List.

Wow, that castle is splendid! High Tea must have been nice!
Glad Holly is done with her dental work. Poor Holly!
Tiredness at night is my main source of overeating. I've managed to stay in a small deficit overall, though. We are getting socked by the weather this week, although I'll never complain about rain in California! My activity level will be way down, though. DH is in Texas visiting family. I'm glad he flew, because if he was driving I don't think he could get home right now. Saturday he will fly to Las Vegas and then to Sacramento, and drive home Sunday.

My birthday celebrations this weekend. I will eat some ice cream, some cake, and we will have take out Chinese food tonite. Shoveling out the massive snow dump that happened during the night should help burn off some of those extra calories. Too heavy and wet to use the snow blower.

I'm working this weekend Have been for all my birthdays for the last 27 years, except for the 2 COVID years. I was hoping to have this year off, since we can now go out to celebrate, but fate intervened. My client's relative bailed on her re pet sitting so I agreed to do it. The client is making me a birthday cake as part of the deal.

Dagmar

I've come to the surface again! And I wrote a nice summary of what's been going on, and then the site lost it for me. I'll try again if this one posts.

Okay, brief version. The move was harder on us than we thought, and we already thought it would be hard enough. But, we're all moved in now, and the old homestead is on the market. We have had some showings, but no offers yet.

As I mentioned, two meals are included in the rent in our new community. One of them is breakfast, and we've had to get used to eating breakfast again. Then we have either lunch or dinner, and most often we opt for dinner and just have a snack in our apartment around lunchtime.

The food is really good and there is plenty of it, including desserts. This has made me nervous, and I have stayed off the scale for a month or so. When I got on a few days ago, I was surprised that my weight was down. It's about as low as it has been in years. So, I give up. I clearly have no control over how these things work.

But I have noticed that after those big dinners, which are pretty early in the evening, I have no desire to snack later on. Maybe that's part of it.

There are many other stories, but they aren't really worth reliving! Plus I don't want to lose this post again.

I'm glad I got caught up with you all! Happy birthday, Dagmar!

Happy Birthday, , Dagmar, with many, many more to follow. If a client is willing to bake you a birthday cake, you must be doing something right. I do wish you well with that snow.

And Happy Settled In, , JayEll, despite the trauma. My continued admiration for taking the steps to move forward in life instead of waiting for some authority to step in. The notion of meals that don't require prep or cleaning up does appeal to me. Pretty neat that you find the food good to your tastes. Although "plenty of it" could be a problem for me. And introducing desserts into my evening meal would definitely be a problem. Right now, my strategy for portion control is to eat what I've been served since DW has a good sense of nutrition and salty. We just had mac and cheese and I didn't go back for seconds. In the olden days, I'd always have seconds.

Glad you are settling in JayEll. Sounds like a good place, and weight loss too - bonus!

The notion of meals that don't require prep or cooking or clean appeals to me too Bill.

I'm waiting for Chinese food delivery right now!

Dagmar

Happy Birthday, Dagmar! I would definitely not be practicing portion control with Chinese food and cake! Yum!!

Glad you are back, JayEll! Having someone else make my meals sounds like a wonderful luxury! But I'd need a private cook, who would make exactly what I wanted. It's wonderful that you have actually lost weight! I wonder if the stress of moving helped keep your hunger in check.

My major stress at the moment is deciding which solar system to get. DH isn't helpful and says whatever I decide is okay. I seem to be a LOT more detail-minded than the salespeople. My biggest fear is that I will make incorrect assumptions about the features and capabilities I think we are getting. (The rainy California weather has allowed for too much research time!) Tonight I'm writing out everything I think is included and will ask the salespeople to confirm in writing. We are getting a backup battery because I'm tired of power outages. Three last week!!

Bill, you should be proud of yourself to be able to eat just one portion of mac and cheese! I'm still 3 pounds over redline but feeling optimistic that I'll lose them in the next month or two.

Good luck with the solar system Alice.

I have eaten birthday cake for the last 2 nights and put the rest in the freezer this morning. My client is a terrific baker but she likes to put lots of very sweet icing on things. I find that sets me up to crave all sorts of things later in the evening. I'll take the rest of the cake home and DH and I can each have a slice with our tea on the weekend.

I wound up sleeping with both cats last night. the female can now climb a small set of steps to get into the bed. She is a weight loss success story. My client helped her go from 39 (!) lbs. down to a now very svelte 13 lbs. It took 3 years but she is now able to do all the things regular cats do. Woohoo for her!

Dagmar

Dagmar, OMG on a 39 pound cat!!! I'm glad your client got her slimmed down. Feeding my animals is one thing I'm strict about. I weigh the dogs' kibble. Our young cats stay fairly slim with dry food and a couple of spoonfuls of canned per day. The old cats are hard to keep weight on. Patrick, who was so sick for a year with histoplasmosis, is back up to 11 pounds, but now he's supposed to be on a kidney-friendly diet, which he hates.

BTW, I scrape that kind of icing straight into the trash before I eat cake (even in front of the baker)

Easter treats are appearing everywhere. I'm going to limit us to one chocolate egg each (filled with 12 Belgian chocolates) and hot cross buns. The buns even have a calorie count - 180 per bun - but the chocs do NOT!

Dagmar

Hello folks!
Alice, I eat when I'm stressed. My partner does not. She is the opposite. And that's why she weighs 125 no matter what.
Nevertheless, my weight has dropped even though I am not restricting at all. And the food here is very good.
I almost never eat anything that sweet (birthday cake), but we have been having ice cream as dessert. It seems to make no difference. The rent we pay allows two meals per day: breakfast (buffet style), plus either lunch or dinner. The menu is the same for those meals. So, we eat dinner and only have lunch snacks--usually crackers with cream cheese and fruit salad made with oranges and bananas. And as I mentioned, whatever we want for dinner.
It's taking forever to get settled, though. People tell me this is normal. Sigh.