Gentle exercise yesterday walking the mall with my friend. Our girls were in a playgroup when they were two, so we have memories of spending eons of time at the mall when the kids were young. Then off to Cheesecake Factory with its overwhelming menu, suitable for the pickiest eater as they have everything. We were seated next to some rambunctious boys and rolled our eyes at each other but the adult did curtail them and we weren't interrupted. No dessert for either of us although I did indulge in a mocha coffee on the way home. It was rainy and cold out, perfect weather for it. I watched the team at this busy Starbucks-they had it down to a science and no one ever stopped moving. I was feeling draggy and took a lovely Sunday afternoon nap. Productivity was making 3 pounds of grilled chicken in the air fryer to use for lunch/dinner this week, as well as a tzatziki sauce. I'm going for a Greek style lunch with those ingredients plus cut up tomato and cukes. I got into the ice cream as I was feeling glum about the whole losing weight process and why not add to it
But today is a new day! It's really yucky out but spring is on the way-birds were chirping away yesterday which was lovely.
Maryann-yay for a nice puttering day.
Gardenerjoy-thanks for the book recommendation.
Bill-too funny about your non-Julliard dgd. You're doing your DS a big favor by keeping the ukulele at your house.

I took Nyquil last night and prevented a recurrence of the sinus pain. The malaise has already dropped into my systems this morning. Apparently, mulberry is a culprit because its the only thing that is significantly pollinating at the moment.

Here’s another reminder for myself that food fixes none of this.

Plowing through my list is a reasonable antidote. If it stops feeling reasonable due to fatigue, I have a new fun activity — making mood boards for interior design using the snipping tool on my computer, the internet, and Power Point. Those aren’t the traditional tools for mood boards or, even, the ones that modern designers use. But I know how to use them and they work well enough for my current purpose which is just to start figuring out what I like and what is available.

Exercise: 60, 1250/1800 minutes for March

Coaches,

I have not been in my car for 2 days. Heaven. I ate at a calorie deficit and took a three mile walk. Spontaneous exercise was cleaning the bathroom linoleum with a Mr. Clean sponge.

DH and I had a completely relaxing Sunday. We finished The Good Doctor season 3 together which I had bought before penny pinching became important. Now I have season 4 waiting for me at the library. I was inspired by The Great British Sewing Bee to make two bathmats from towels that were a wedding gift 25 years ago and which are now shredded on the sides. Simple procedure of making a "pillowcase" with home dec fabric, right sides together, sewing up the seams and flip right side out. I will use some of the same home dec fabric to embellish a set of bath towels. High fashion probably no one else will see. Still fun and it kept me out of food as sewing usually does.

Joy: My favorite fiddling now is to take a picture of a a space and an item an have Chatgpt integrate. It is not as effective yet as your mood board but it has allowed me to design a pattern for the materials going into the two rooms at the cabin.
Curly: Great going with the three pounds of chicken. I am doing the same today..
BBE: My I suggest Guitar Tuna as a tuning app.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Timed an errand run according to a weather map showing that the rain would cease briefly at noon. It happened just so to my amazement. Thank you weather forecasters for the occasional spot on successes of your thankless job. One leg of the errand run was to pick up a book at the library. Was helped by a cheerful librarian. Picked up another bookmark, not because I need another, but because I'm an addict. So like being reminded what a gift public libraries are.

There's a coating of snow on our cars outside right now. I'm ready for this to be over. Joy of the morning just now was picking up both the Monday edition and the Tuesday edition of the two newspapers we receive. There was an issue with the press that prevented yesterday's delivery. Kinda fun looking forward to reading four newspapers with this morning's breakfast. Yesterday, I was forced to read the Economist at breakfast. I got snotty when a publication that knows, and proudly uses, the queen's english wrote in a scathing editorial about the U. S. president, "even lamer duck" after the current events. "Lamer duck"? Back to the comics this morning.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was baked cod fish to strum our New England feeling. We're still talking about Project Hail Mary speculating about what could possible happen. Evening snack was the standard blueberries plus the two Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Had to ask mother Google: "A mood board should contain a curated mix of images, colors, textures, and text that define the visual direction of a project." New to me. What fun! Yay for Nyquil if that works for you.

maryann – Getting 25 years out of towels is pretty good. Yay for two days without driving.

curlyjax – That's a big one to avoid dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. That's a whole bunch of chicken to get ready for meals for the week.

Readers -

Awkward atmosphere at work as everyone was mad at the colleague who bailed at helping last week, but it wasn't addressed apparently. She needs to apologize and then we can all move on,and the boss should address it but that's not going to happen. I can't stand this passive aggressive stuff but it isn't my place to deal with it. It was a very busy day and I went to my workout after. My tendon is still sore at times but i'm not going to stop, I really like lifting weights. I ate a lot of healthy things and then nose dived into eating cake and ice cream because it still feels like winter and because it was there staring at me. Ugh!!!!I do so well for awhile and then it goes out the window. Productivity was finally dealing with some financial stuff as i'm meeting with my advisor today i'm zoom. I put it off until the last minute. Then I watched the first two episodes of Call the midwife new season. I better ration it out, i'm really going to miss it when its done.
Bill-there's a coating of snow on my car too, ugh!! We are lucky to have public libraries indeed, and so many of them at our disposal.
Gardenerjoy-Mood boards sound very fun indeed.
Maryann-you are so creative! Yay for a few days without driving.

Coaches,

Calories was at a deficit yesterday but not enough. I need to reduce my calories even more. Spontaneous exercise yesterday was 3.5 hours of hard yardwork. I sawed down limbs of bushes gone wild that not touch the fench and the roof. Six bigs garbage bags and six piles of branches later, i am still not down. How did things get so far away from me.

Today is a food reset. I had homemade yogurt and high protein granola for breakfast. Protein smoothies for the rest of the day.I am going to finish up some sewing After I eat the frog by calling the demon Sleep solution people. They are so incompetent it makes me furious. Oh well, they still do not rise to hideousness of AT&T. I will survive.

Curly: I just can't have ice cream around. I bought chocolate covered almonds at an incredible price for Dh lunches. I hid them in the china covered dishes so I woulnd't eat them all at once. Then I forgt they were there!! Of course, once i remembered I had one bag after i gave a bag to DH.
BBE: Off to the library myself today.

We’ve already had our big adventure of the day — getting passport photos. We’re not going anywhere, but if we don’t renew our passports in the next few months, then we will have to start from scratch to get them. I hope that I don’t need a passport to register to vote when we move. But I want to be prepared for that and other eventualities.

I’m planning to head to the grocery store, but I’m waiting around to see if they will get my prescription filled so that I can pick it up at the same time. The odd and unpredictable timing means that I want to be more careful than usual to only buy what’s on the list and not pick up a treat while I’m there. So, that’s the plan!

Exercise: 60, 1310/1800 minutes for March

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Boring trip to the supermarket - just the right kind. I'd watched the neighbor working hard to scrape the iced snow from her windshield. When I went out an hour later, it slushed off with an easy push. Thank you sunshine. The supermarket had four bottles of the salad dressing the DW likes. They've been out of it for months; she was using the last bottle. Arriving home with four bottles made me hero for the day. I easily walked by Easter candy as well as other chocolate covered nuts. And California golden raisins. The kinds of 'snacks' that could sneak in over my food plan. CREDIT moi for the obvious.

Excitement was giving up looking for my E-ZPass that should live on the windshield of my new (10 months ago) car. I feel sure that I removed it from the previous car but now can't find it. After refusing to give up, I made the executive decision to declare it lost. I defeated the E-ZPass website to ask for a replacement; pay the modest cost; and move on with my life. Good news is that I noticed that the credit card on file with them for the 25 years I've had the pass is the one that was just canceled. I was able to update with the new card before I got caught on a trip with toll roads trying to charge to an invalid credit card. Am now pondering what they'd have done if I had attempted to drive onto the George Washington Bridge in New York City with an expired credit card.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was white beans, kale chips, and my green salad. Kale chips are a treat since they take a bit of work to prepare. I assume that they're good for me despite being uber delicious and fun to pop into the mouth. Evening snack was the standard blueberries plus the two Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Super smart to have a current passport. I cringe at the thought that the ease of voting will become a chore and, for some, a barrier.

maryann – That's a lot of limbs from a lot of bushes growing wild so fast. According to the diaries of the Oregon trail folks, that's the magic of California soil that drove them on. Thanks for "I will survive."

curlyjax – Wish you well figuring out how to deal with passive aggressive stuff at work - or at least not have it eat at you when it's not being dealt with. Yay for very busy.

Readers -

I discussed the situation at work with my boss but nothing came out of it. I guess i''ll just have to let it go. I was OP at work then zipped off to the grocery store for a few things and ate a bunch of junk at home. It's too hard to have temptations around-DD likes her sweets-but I also did buy myself a little Easter candy which I certainly didn't need to do. I had a zoom meeting with my financial advisor and have a few new things to work on.I had a little tiff with DD and wasted the rest of the night watching tv. It still feels a bit wintery so I'm letting that be the excuse for being a slug. I want to organize my household paperwork plus admin stuff for various family members but I don't know where to start so I end up just not doing it. There is so much to do with the house in the spring too, I really need to pull all this together.
Maryann-that is very impressive spontaneous exercise!
Gardenerjoy- smart to have a current passport.
Bill-it's was surprisingly icy on my driveway this am, good that you waited for some melting. Yay for favorite foods being restocked.

Coaches,
Wonderful day yesterday! My much anticipated movie matinee featuring Project Hail Mary was so enjoyable. Best movie of the decade for me!!!!!! I purchased zero snacks. Food was at a greater calorie deficit than the day before and I hope to continue the trend. No formal exercise. Spontaneous movement was cleaning two of three bedrooms. I feel much more rested and relaxed.

Tasks for the day:
Intellectual:
I assigned myself a task to remind myself where all countries in the Middle east are. Here is a quiz for you. https://www.geoguessr.com/vgp/3049 This website was my freshman geography class's weekly homework. I suck geography so it was fun for the students to watch me try to beat my times up o the smartboard. They loved to laugh at me. A homework pass went to the fastest student. I can't believe I forgot
Pakistan was a neighbor to Iran as well as Afghanistan. Oh yeah! that is why Russia went into it in '79. In search of a warm water port. That is all we would have needed. A Russian port near the gulf.

Practical:
Deep clean walking closet and the adjacent primary bedroom ( no longer in use.) refill yard bags DH has just emptied.

Creative:
Sew the accompanying embellished towels for my new bath mat.

Wave to all.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Picked up the (10 yo) DGD after her Fourth Grade day of school. Full of tales of their last ski trip. At her house, she and DW are secretly working on a joint water color of a vase of flowers to give her mom for Mother's Day. They were able to hide it from her when she unexpectedly came home early. DD showed us an essay that DGD had written. Creative piece of writing with impeccable spelling and grammar. Then showed us, but not DGD, some test scores that place her reading comprehension in late ninth grade. Between those two, any concerns about whether she's getting an education at her small public school are resolved.

The evening's in-person lecture on Neanderthals made me proud of its 2% in my genome. Most recent digs have found that some lived some 7000 years alongside Homo sapiens. Whatever caused H. sapiens to survive and H. neanderthalensis to go extinct wasn't a quick and obvious event. Some were around less than 40k years ago – kinda recently. Minor exercise, CREDIT moi, walking from the car to the venue.

Whole Food sandwich for dinner since we had to leave the house early. Smoked turkey on cranberry pecan bread. Half price because it was made the day before. Grabbed it – that turkey and that bread remain fresh longer than 24 hours. Love a bargain at Whole Foods expense feeling it's a bit rare. Only only ate half in anticipation that there would be a reception after the lecture. There was. I had a modest plate of soft cheeses and baguette coins. Consider that I stayed on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Evening snack was the standard blueberries plus the two Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies.


maryann – Thanks for the link to remind me that I need to learn some geography. Can't do better than "Best movie of the decade for me!!!!!!"

curlyjax – That's a successful strategy, "I'll just have to let it go." Yes, the lingering bit of wintery is annoying.

Readers -

The atmosphere is back to usual at work which is good. We're doing a strategic plan which I enjoy participating in, even though the contract person running it is quite annoying. I had a good workout, then home to do not much. I read something about hackers can hack into your email and have access to your bank statements etc if you don't delete them right away. I have a feeling my kids leave things set up on their phone where the password is saved and they don't have to log in each time, so I need to remind them to not do that. It's so scary what hackers can do. I fell into a depression about all sorts of things and overate and did nothing for the rest of the day yet again, sigh. I had the night to myself and wasted it.I need to stop this downwards spiral. There's a lot to do, a lot of mess including paper stuff and I don't know where to start, its too overwhelming.
One useful thing I did learn was eating my cabbage/kale etc mix does fill me up (with protein) more than some other lunches, so that is something i'm doing right. Unless I just wasn't that hungry yesterday but I'm going with the former conclusion.

Coaches,

OP day that could have run out of control with some chocolate covered almonds but didn't.
21 pick up day where i found things to take to Goodwill.
Today is yard day. I am telling myself I only have to do a half an hour.

Curly: I reaffirm my daily need for greens to fill me up. Why do i slip away from it?
BBE: I am small public school's greatest champion. All of my friends raised their children in the wealthiest private and public schools in the country - literally. My one friend's school Hillsborough has a PTA that raises millions of dollars. It is next to Stanford. Every single one of their children is struggling if not in an out right free fall. One barely graduated high school. Two are mid twenties dependent financially on their parents. One is furious at her parents for cutting her off at 26 after they paid her way through an Ivy League. One, god bless my friends, died of a phentanyl overdose. I can't even imagine the pain. All of my friend at some point or another questioned our puny AG school district with poor national scores. However, my son can work along side anyone of every race, creed and economic status. He has common sense. Teachers worried about challenging him. I told those teachers it was their job to make him a good citizen of a democracy. It was my job to challenge him. True, he had one extra semester in U Mich because his calculus in high school was Algebra base/ or something like that. Small price to pay for the man he has become. Also, the children around him benefitted from him and from his two active parents who volunteered in classrooms, chaperoned field trips, and championed booster club.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Went out for an errand without a coat as if it were Spring. Wasn't warm, but I was only briefly outside and my psyche needed to pretend that Spring was here.

Lunch was the other half of the Whole Food's sandwich from the day before: smoked turkey on cranberry pecan bread. It's unusual for me to have only half a sandwich as in, it just doesn't seem right. I ponder this because it's in my future to eat less with age. Can't eat less without changing something. Might have to address why my little brain thinks half a sandwich is just wrong. Like half a leg of chicken. I could remind myself that half a turkey leg is more than enough. Just another reminder that it's not my stomach deciding how much food I need to eat.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was pork chops grilled on the back deck with the door casually opened and closed without bracing against the cold rushing in. Neanderthals continue to dominate dinner conversation. One notion is that Homo sapiens were more aggressive - an unpleasant thought that we drove away the chance to be a peaceful people. Another hypothesis is that H. sapiens had more advanced speech capabilities. Only weakly supported by evidence, but it feels better. A half mango was added to my evening snack in addition to the standard blueberries plus the two Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. Mango is so good. Even though it certainly contains some calories, in my plan a half piece of fruit is a freebie.


maryann – Thanks for the testimony for small public schools. Always enjoy hearing that you admire your DS.

curlyjax – That's a healthy thought that your cabbage/kale etc mix fills you up. Freighting that scams keep getting more sophisticated.

Readers -

Yesterday I zoomed with both my brothers together briefly which was fun. I got into a bit of food I shouldn't have at work but then ate my salad at home for dinner. The day started off sad learning one of my clients had unexpectedly died. She was someone I enjoyed working with. that is the hard thing about working with elders. There was some grumpiness going on in the kitchen but I stayed out of it. The former cook had set the tone for complaining about people which unfortunately still happens, and complaints instead of dealing with the situation. Later in the day I got to meet two ladies who speak English as a second language-one very little-which I always enjoy. A bit of a giggle fit with my colleague which is always stress relieving. I went to BFF to make signs for the Saturday rally but ended up chatted about Ireland and other things instead. And I got into ice cream there, boo.
Maryann-I'm with you on public school, although it was a consideration when we looked at different towns. There were some tough kids at the school I went to which was harder on my brother than me, but also made us both champions of the underdog and exposed us to all sorts of folks. I feel the same way about the state schools my kids went to-they graduated with no debt and both have professional jobs.
Bill-Mangos are the best! So excited to have summer fruits coming.