Birchie, I take a standard multivitamin with 100% of RDA for vitamin D. I also now own a "mood light" for seasonal depression, as Oregon skies have been dark grey 99% of the time since early October (seriously? does the sun EVER shine here?). I sit in front of it for a few hours each morning at work. I keep moving it closer and closer to my face - either I will eventually get happier or my retinas will explode.

Saef, can you cut out the middleman and tell the insurance/relocation people to call the contractor directly? Every time they ask: "you'll have to ask the contractor".

Andrea, ugh. Even worse than anticipated. A trip like that takes a while to shake off; you'll need at least the coming weekend to bounce back.

Birchie, I would bet money that your Vitamin D levels are too low. One needs more sunshine than you receive to allow your body to make enough, and we tend to make less as we age. Vitamin D definitely aids with absorption of calcium. But you also need adequate Vitamin K2. There is a great resource about K2 here. Quoting from it:

Vitamin K2 has a wide range of underappreciated health benefits:

It prevents calcium from going into all the wrong places and makes sure it gets into all the right places. For example, it keeps it out of your kidneys, where it would cause kidney stones, and keeps it out of your blood vessels, where it would cause heart disease, but helps it to get into your bones and teeth, making your bones strong and your teeth resistant to cavities.

It helps you make insulin and remain very sensitive to insulin. This means it helps stabilize your blood sugar, protects against diabetes, and prevents the metabolic problems that often arise as a consequence of obesity.

It helps improve exercise performance by enhancing your ability to utilize energy during bouts of physical activity.
It protects against cancer by suppressing the genes that make cells cancerous and expressing the genes that make cells healthy.

I supplement with 5000 IU (not mg) Vitamin D per day. The pill also has 90 mcg K2 (113% RDA). The above resource lists foods that are high in K2 but not many that I care to eat. Before I started supplementing with the current pill, a blood test put my Vitamin D level at 40 ng/mL which is pretty good, but it won't hurt to get it a little higher. Great protection against cancer recurrence.

Speaking of cancer, studies have shown that women who take a mulitvitamin are at greater risk of cancer, as are women who oversupplement with calcium. I'm not sure why - it may be that massive levels of vitamins are not a good thing, which my intuition has always told me anyway. It is so much better to get our nutrients from real food!

I am running as fast as I can to stay in the same place, i.e. working hard to control my eating and maintain my weight at 125. Overeating is such a comfort, as is being lazy I'd sure like to see 123 or at least a consistent 124 before the new year.

Thursday morning, and I'm at 156.1, despite yesterday's luncheon at the sushi place. I was surprised at this choice. Sushi is a divisive food. The buffet had a hibachi grill station for those who won't eat it.

In the hotel room, bracing myself against bitter cold and wind. Another year-end review to deliver late this afternoon, a good one.

Oregon is my "heart" state so I just had to comment. Yes, the sun does shine there, and it's glorious! Yeah, you kind of have to suffer (or at least get used to) the grey winters, but you can't beat the incredible lush greenery, the waterfalls, and the wonderful hiking and boating opportunities that the winter rains bring. Of course, I grew up in Seattle, which is worse as far as rain and grey skies goes, and then moved to the Willamette Valley in Oregon to attend college. Stayed there for years, then the Portland area before I had to move to where there was snow (ick!) in the winter and 90+ degrees in the summer. Both my kids were born in Oregon. Sadly, the only way I will become an Oregonian again is when my ashes are scattered on Mt. Hood. But I visit often--my sister lives in Florence. Talk about grey skies!!

On Friday morning, facing the stress of procrastinating on year-end reviews: I need to write another one, the best of the bunch, despite a lot of meetings. If I have to, I'll reschedule it for next week, but I'd like to get it complete before the week to come.

Also I am nowhere near prepared for Christmas. I need to jump online and order some stuff immediately.

My weight's at 155.3. I need to make this a thoughtful and rational day of decent choices.

Friday, feeling sick. I think I've caught a cold. I feel icky but without any real symptoms, but the icky feeling is what I usually get before the actual onset. Don't want this.

And dealing with a horrendous amount of stress at work over our internet provider who disconnected us yesterday after I've been dealing with them double billing me for months. I think I've gotten it straightened out, but don't know when they'll reconnect us.

And I feel fat. Like none of my clothes fit. This sucks.

Saturday morning and I'm at 154 exactly.

Staring out the window at a snowstorm. I knew this was coming and slept in till 7 AM, since I would not be able to get out early for errands. While it's frustrating, honestly, a nice hotel is not a bad place to be during a storm with the gym on site and the indoor pool and the breakfast buffet (the latter cooked by employees who had to battle this to get here early this morning -- at least when they came in, it was just starting).

Trying to make the best of it. It helps to know this will stop, turn into rain and temperatures will spike tomorrow, melting what's coating the roads.

We now have about 15 inches of snow with more on the way. Then there's supposed to be freezing rain. Not much hope of it melting up here.

Dagmar

Sunday morning, and I'm at 153.7, which is slightly better than last Sunday and the same as last Saturday.

Yesterday's storm left me feeling mutinous as a child placed in 48-hour detention. I wasted too much time on pointless, anxiety-heightening scrolling through political stories. Trying to focus on my "credits" as Bill's group would: I did a load of laundry, I went down to the elliptical in the hotel gym and spent 40 hard minutes fighting it with the resistance turned up to 12, I cooked quinoa, I read through NY Times Book Reviews lingering from the summer months. I called my mother. I deleted some email from my ever-overflowing work inbox. (Over 6,000 received and 10,000 sent, and I need to keep filing them away.)

Dagmar, I know there's a lot about your life and the place that you live that you like, so that must be the tradeoff for the fierce weather. I grew up nearer to you than I am now, in Upstate NY, which shares a lake and a lot of the same weather. I was relieved when I went just a little further south and got out from under all that snow. But I must tell you, Canada looks appealing as I feel like a Roman citizen who has become the subject of a delusional and dangerous emperor. What is in store for us one month from now?

There is no time, and no point, in worrying about a month from now. The accident happened last month. The broken cars are gone, the traffic is flowing, and people still don't want to look away.

I'm not in denial; I just don't allow the media to drive my moods. I am sick to death of opinion pieces. No one knows what will happen, and speculating about "what went wrong" is pointless.

saef, of all people you should know that everything can change in an instant. Tune out of that circus. You have your own circus with your own monkeys to deal with.

There you are, Jay. Hadn't heard from you in a while and am hoping you & your partner are well & thriving as the holiday approaches.

Monday morning, and I'm at 154.4, which was disappointing, as I made sensible choices yesterday and had a moderate intake of food.

My mother is crammed into the hotel room with me. She got in late from the casino, which woke me up. I got up early to head to the gym before work, which woke her up. She'll be at the apartment today while I'm working. If the contractor comes by, she will give him an earful. We'll see if the cabinets are finished this week and the contractor is able to install them. I just want to have an oven to cook in by the weekend -- or we'll end up picking up a sad little rotisserie chicken for Christmas.

Hello, saef. I don't say much these days.

My partner is well and remains cancer free. It's going on four years. My siblings and I sold our last family land holding, and we have split up the proceeds. It's a nice chunk of change and will make life easier. I'm retired, and except for proofreading projects I still take on to "keep my hand in," my days are my own. I meditate and take a walk daily. Every other day I do a weights workout. I am writing poetry and essays and playing the guitar again. I'm studying Buddhism and volunteering.

My weight hasn't changed, except it was down yesterday. That means I've been maintaining for years. It's not where I want it to be, but I have so many better things to do than worry about weight, given that my health is really good overall.

I hope that you and everyone on 3FC will have happiness and not let life become more joyless striving.

Tuesday, at 154.8, trending higher, but lower than last Tuesday, when I was more than 156 pounds.

Mother was disappointed when I got back to the hotel room after 7 PM due to finishing writing up a year-end evaluation and then getting caught on an I-95 traffic jam caused by an accident shutting down one lane.

No word from the contractor yesterday. I'm trying to downplay Christmas in my mind. It's just another Sunday. That way I'll be less upset when he tells me the kitchen won't be complete and I need to call the insurance company for another extension on my hotel stay -- if they will grant it.

Could you and your mother go out for a Christmas dinner at a nice restaurant, if your own kitchen isn't ready? We have several place here in Toronto that are open on Christmas day and serve the traditional dinner with all the trimmings. Being near NYC I imagine you have the same?

Dagmar

I ditto what Dagmar is suggesting, Saef. A nice Christmas dinner at a restaurant sounds preferable to a sad rotisserie chicken.

JayEll-- glad to hear from you. You sound happy and at peace, which is where we all hope to be I would assume.