We're serious enough about this Spring thing to have, finally, planted our Sugar Snaps in the ground outside, and our tomato seeds in a protective environment indoors under grow lights.

What joy this Seasons business brings.

I'm going to recommit to getting healthy starting today. I have been avoiding the scale and wearing my largest pair of pants for a week now.

141 lbs. this morning.

My red line is 135. I swore I wouldn't get above this ever again.

141 lbs. is 6 lbs. over my red line.

I keep thinking I will not have to practice maintenance for the rest of my life. I keep thinking that I don't have to weigh myself every 2nd day, write down what I'm eating every day, and count calories when the scale moves up.

I know what works for me. Time to start doing it. For the rest of my life.

Good Monday all!

Dagmar

Good morning good morning. I was planning on running this afternoon, but the sunshine with possible thunderstorms predicted looks like cloudy skies outside instead. Sadness. Got in a good run on Saturday, cut the grass yesterday, ate pizza for dinner and ice cream with baseball on Friday night. Am going to work harder on the food today.

Dagmar - I find that I don't do so well when I don't weigh and log every day, even though I occasionally feel a little annoyed by it.

Bill - gardens are good.

All you gardeners out there - I have a sandbox in the backyard I'm going to break down and am thinking about building a raised garden over the space. Do I need to dig out the sand or can I spread it out and put dirt on top of it? The sandbox is 4x4 with a thin layer of sand that has a decent amount or dirt in it, I have a vision of an 8x8 raised garden maybe? I saw a kit at Home Depot, or I could buy landscape timbers and build my own?

Good morning.

Saturday, DH and I flew up to SLC for my mom's memorial service. It snowed the entire day. While it's not uncommon for late spring snow, I don't remember it being that late in the spring and have it stick like it did. It was a nice service and it was nice seeing so many of my parent's friends and a few relatives that I had not seen for years and years. Not everyone was able to make it due to the weather--several were stuck in southern Utah, Nevada and Colorado.

Sunday we went to see Young Frankenstein the Musical. Very funny and they did a good job of keeping a lot of the movie content in there while adding lots of singing and dancing.

Yesterday at Costco I picked up some Clamato juice and plan on having that as my nightly mocktail. I dress it up with some Tabasco and Worchestershire sauce and I think that will cure my "need" for a drink. Since giving up soda a few years back, I find my options are limited, and I think that's why I reach out for wine or a cocktail. I've done the vodka-less Bloody Mary before and they're just as satisfying. I know Clamato isn't the best choice (high in sodium and pretty steep in calories at 50 per cup) but it's a better choice than glass after glass of wine. We'll see if this experiment works.

I'm looking forward to the weekend when we'll play a couple rounds of golf. My in-laws are readying themselves to leave for the summer. MIL is getting cataract surgery next month. We'll see them again in August for a family reunion where DH's family is in charge of all the food.

I wish I could have a garden, but I have no luck here with summer heat.

Good luck on getting back to red line, Dagmar.

Hi Bill. Yes, Spring has sprung and I am happy about it. The warmer the better in my opinion.

Dagmar-- I need to join you. I am horribly frustrated because I have stuck to my plan and have exercised faithfully. My weight keeps going up and up and is now way over my red line. I swore I would NEVER go over 130 and haven't been there in probably three years, yet yesterday I was 132 and today 131.5. Now I just want to get back under 130 ASAP and then hopefully back down to my comfortable zone of 123-125. I've decided to change up some of my meals as I think my body may be stuck here. That is the only thing I can think of unless there is something medically going on-- I have a physical scheduled in June. I changed my breakfast entirely this morning and am going to keep trying new things.

Allison-- I'm glad you are back from your mom's service. I'm sorry some of your guests couldn't make it due to the weather. Your mocktail sounds like a great idea to me. Let us know how it works!

Shannon-- glad you got a great run in this weekend. I just registered for the Nike Women's Marathon but I won't know until late April whether or not I have a spot-- it is by random raffle because it is so popular-- you get a Tiffany necklace when you cross the finish line!! I've never run more than a 5K (in a race) so I signed up for the half versus the full marathon. I tried to do it two years ago but didn't get a spot so I hope I get one this time!

Must stay calm & not act annoyed. I've got to go out to dinner tonight after work with my manager and some coworkers. We're going to an Indian restaurant. So I'm trying to think of what's the healthiest thing I can order. Channa masala? Tandoori chicken? Whole-wheat tandoori bread? Tandoori fish of some kind? (On the menu, it's called Machli Tikki.

This would be less anxiety-causing if I hadn't had business lunch yesterday with a coworker (swordfish on top of salad) and if I hadn't attended a wedding this past Saturday night (a six-course meal, in which I let three courses go back untouched, including the red velvet wedding cake with ice cream -- but I liked the little prosciutto on top of melon at the entree, I ate the slightly sodden arugula & removed the beef from the Wellington puff pastry that encased it).

I want to stay home all day long & eat my own cooking for the next seven days, damn it.

Allison, have you tried spicy V8?

Hi to everyone! Fly by for me today. Went to the doctor, no real progress. They drew blood to test my thyroid again and to test me for vitamin D levels. I got a referral to a podiatrist for my feet and a referral to an endocrinologist. The problem is that all the good endocrinologists take months to get in -- the first person they were going to send me to has no appointments until September! Not sure who I will go see yet. If I'm lucky my thryoid test will come back funky and they'll adjust my meds and it will magically fix everything. Otherwise I don't really know. I am considering going back to rheumatology but to a different doc.

Jessica~yes, I've tried spicy V8. I find it, as well as tomato juice, too thick.

This may be a stupid idea, but could you just thin it out with water?

I have thought of that. I guess I could buy a single serving of it and see if it works or not.

Or thin it out with seltzer? To me, seltzer has a slight tang that's reminiscent of alcoholic drinks. Or maybe I just associate it with that because it's a common mixer. I'd think a lime-flavored seltzer might go with tomato juice, as a sort of Mexican thing. Maybe not, since I have never tried them together; perhaps I have just suggested an abomination.

Jessica, best of luck to you. This is not going to sound encouraging, I'm afraid, but I've had my plantar fasciitis for going on four years now. Sometimes it goes away for days at a time, sometimes it flares up again. Probably because I've never stayed off my feet for a sustained period of time & my fascia are permanently &%$^#ed.

Seltzer might work, I don't know about the fizz, though. I'll do some experimenting after I hit the grocery store.

Oh, and I've got plantar fasciitis in my left foot. I find, strangely enough, that if I wear a higher heel it doesn't hurt as much the next day. Unfortunately, DH is the same height as I, so I rarely wear high heels (not even 2"). Besides that, working in construction (read: casual) and being in the desert (read: hot), I tend to wear flip flops a lot. I bought a pair last year that are designed to help plantar fasciitis, but I can't tell that they are any better (although I can tell they have a much more pronounced arch).

Plantar fasciitis here too. Left foot (my dominant side) only. I do some stretches and take anti-inflammatories (acetominaphen mostly) and it goes away for a couple of months. It seems to flare up right away if I walk on concrete a lot.

So it looks like Miss Chloe and I might well be history. She has attacked every dog she sees in the off leash this week. Today she had on the muzzle - that's just crazy! I have suggested that her owner try her on meds - not a great solution long term but it's something.

I will miss little Jasmine (Chloe's sidekick) a whole lot. Extraordinary little dog!

Surprisingly when I made the decision to end my employment with the girls' owner I didn't run to food for comfort. That's the one good thing to come from this situation.

Good evening all!

Dagmar

The Machli Tikki reminded me a little of blackened Cajun fish. It was a white fish coated with spice (or perhaps marinated) and it was brought to me on a small iron skillet, still smoking. It reminded me of how this one restaurant used to bring out the meat part of its fajita dish. I did not share even one bite with the table. I'm ordering this again the next time we go to an Indian restaurant.

Whew, my run of socializing & eating out has ended for the rest of the week. It was fun but I'm relieved it's over. I have stuff to do that I kept running past with my eyes averted while on the way out the door. I'm looking at a swollen laundry bag, a kitchen floor that needs sweeping & wiping, and a full sink with broccoli rabe floating on the water which needs to be swished around & then have its stems peeled. Also I meant to try cooking cranberries in my crockpot.

No one's ever going to say at my memorial service, "... and she also kept her house really, really clean."

Allison, I've been wracking my brain over what kind of tomato juice was served on my flight from Colorado to Kalispell, Montana last fall. The stewardess said FBI agents (who take that flight regularly) always ordered it. It wasn't Clamato. Nor V8. It looked like one of those small regional brands with a cultish following. I swear the can had some kind of Latino motif. I was intrigued & tried to remember the name, but now, six months later, it's gone.

I wouldn't mind if the plantar fasciitis was something that would go away then flare up periodically. That's basically the way my wrist problems have been -- tolerable enough for daily activities, flare up if I do something excessive, calm down again a week or so later. The problem is that my feet constantly hurt, all the time, and I can't stand up/walk for longer than about 10 minutes without it getting bad enough that I have to sit down. In any case the doctor seemed to think that the podiatrist would have some treatments that would help, so we'll see what happens.