[Wannabehealthy]

Pipsicle, I don't see a problem with trying a short stint on the protein shakes. If you have issues with it you can always stop. You won't know until you try. Only thing is if you do lose weight you might rebound after you stop but might have a net loss.

[Pipsicle]

Hi Carol- I think a short stint would be okay. The bigger problem is I believe I am incapable of sticking to it.

I am trying a few new things this week in hopes of shaking things loose. I am not off to a great start. One of the things has something in it that gives my digestive tract issues. It shouldn't have it in it. I only realized it after I started having issues after I ate it. Kind of a bummer as I really liked it. It was the perfect kind of like, enough to get satisfaction from it but not enough to want to overeat it.

Skiing was a lot of fun and I hope it truly burns as many calories as it is reputed to. Usually when I come back from a trip or a few nights away, my weight is up. This time it was okay and I'll take that as a win.

I am still struggling with adjusting to the time change.

[Pipsicle]

Well, my calorie window that ended at 5:00 was great. However, I am still having the problem of eating too much as soon as the window opens. I tried not to eat the last thing I got out and I just couldn't bring myself to put it down. Tomorrow is another day and now is another moment. I did want more but I am staying strong.

Typically, I have a caffeinated drink with lunch. I am trying to stop that to see if helps me fall asleep sooner at night. It seems like it does. Although, I am so tired right now and have a lot more to do before I can go to bed.

[Pipsicle]

The usual problem- eating too much in the evenings. Any strategy I come up with doesn't work. Tomorrow is another day and now is another moment.

So my cat was helping me limit my caffeine today. I was really dragging at lunch time and decided to have my last caffeinated diet soda. Shortly after I opened it, my cat spilled the majority of it. Yesterday, the only caffeine I had was the small cup of coffee I usually have in the mornings. I fell asleep right away and was sleeping well. My daughter woke me up at 2:00 am because she thought she heard someone or something in our backyard. The dogs and I checked it out and everything was fine. It was hard to get back to sleep though.

[Pipsicle]

Quietly muddling along. I may break even this month. I will take a maintain over a gain all day long.

While I was on my ski trip, my friend had a set of conversation starting questions. The question was - What would you change about your appearance? Turns out the question really was- What would you change about your parents?

I never got to answer the first way it was phrased. However if I did, I would have said removing the stains from my teeth. I have brownish spots on them due to antibiotics at a very young age. I've never tried to aggressively whiten them because I worry about damaging them. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that I don't think of my weight as adversely affecting my appearance. I do think of it as a major health issue. Now I just need to act like it is a major health issue and getting my eating cleaned up.

The company I work for is talking about having people go back to the office. I have been working from home since the start of the pandemic. This little bunny doesn't want to go into the viper den.

[Pipsicle]

This month, if I use today's weight, I can either have a half pound loss or a one pound gain. For my monthly weight, I can either take use my weight on the last day of the previous month or the first day of the new month. Since I am unhappy with all of my monthly options from the start of the year, I haven't picked any of my monthly weights. Maybe my weight tomorrow will make it easy by being the exact same as today.

At the start of the year, my weight was at -32 lbs. This morning it was -30.5 lbs. This would make it a 1.5 lb gain in my first quarter of the year red zone. Typically I gain in the first quarter of the year so I have been calling it my red zone. A 1.5 lb gain is really not that bad. It is potentially statistically insignificant. I am very curious to see what tomorrow brings.

[Pipsicle]

Over yet again on calories and I didn't track my calories this evening.

My weigh-in this morning was great and I was down a pound to -31.5 lbs. This gives me four options for the month.

A. Staying the same
B. 1 loss
C. 0.5 pound loss
D. 1.5 pound loss

Gosh, after such a tough month, these options look great. This is such a strange journey. I am not sure which one to pick and will have look at what I pick for January and February before I decide.

[Pipsicle]

So I didn't track today either. I do believe it is helpful for me to track so I will try to do it tomorrow.

Below is how I think I will record the first three months of this year for my weight tracking. I haven't written it in pen yet.

Jan +0.5
Feb +1
March -1

Basically, I am taking the best weigh-in for each month's transition.

I went on a bike ride today. My first one since 2020. I can hardly believe I did not ride my bike once last year. In 2020, I rode pretty much everyday (excluding Sundays) if the temperature was above 50 degrees from April-November. My bike helmet was really old and leaving bits of foam on my head. For Christmas 2020, I asked for a new bike helmet. I got a really nice one and didn't wear it until today. That's how I know I didn't ride at all in 2021. I definitely want to ride more this year!

[Pipsicle]

As usual, up quite a bit on my official weigh-in day. I am up 3.5 pounds since the first of the month. Go figure. At some point, I am going to have to consider raising the weight on my side bar. I have decided I am okay to keep it the same this week since it was the same as my month weigh-in. No improvement on the other health parameters (BP, BS) that I can measure at home.

I have a "careful what you wish for" scenario going on. Work has had me stressed out lately and I had been wishing it wasn't stressing me out so much. Well, another area of my life has gone completely astray and is so much more stressful. So I have my wish, work isn't stressing me out as much. Just need to keep swimming.

[Pipsicle]

If I had managed to stay on-plan, I would be ten pounds lighter today. If I get it right starting today, I would have 539 days left on my journey. So in the last 250 days or so, I have been able to advance 105 days closer to my goal. On the one hand it is awful but on the other hand it is progress. I am glad I am making progress.

I am still working on getting better sleep. I only have about 6 ounces of coffee in the morning and don't have any caffeinated beverages after that. I am really tired in the afternoons. I am no stranger to fatigue even with caffeine. However, without the caffeine, I am definitely having trouble focusing in the afternoons which is new to me.

[Pipsicle]

Ketone test strips say I am doing great. Scale says I am doing awful.

I was so tired last night. Once my head hit the pillow, I felt wide awake but still tired. It was very annoying. I did end up taking a little Benadryl. This morning was awful though. It was really hard to get going and I had a terrible headache.

I am really not sure how to improve my sleep.

[Pipsicle]

I had a caffeinated drink this afternoon so I had a bit more energy. Hopefully, I will fall asleep easily tonight.

I've been feeding some ducks, a male and female pair, that have been hanging out on my front lawn. Today my husband said he saw them walk across the street and up the sidewalk to get to our house. Too funny, I wish I could have seen them waddling along. It was really windy here today so I wonder if that is why they were walking.

I've been tossing the food out when they are there and I don't scare them away. I also call to them by simply shouting "ducky ducks". This afternoon, I was putting out food when they weren't there and a couple of hours earlier than when they usually appear. For grins, I still called out to them. Within a few minutes they showed up. I find it hard to believe they heard me. However, the timing was strange.

I'm not doing great with being on plan. I am starting to track again but I don't like the final calorie tally.

[Pipsicle]

I seem to be hanging on at maintenance. I am trying to come to terms with the fact that this will never be easy for me. It will never be habit. I need to have constant vigilance about any dietary decision.

I don't feel like any part of this journey is going well lately. I did make a short list of new things to try and I've been able to stick to some of it.

[Pipsicle]

Not great; not awful. Still trying to coax the scale downward.

I got my hair done today and it looks really nice. The colorist I have is wonderful and make my hair look like it did in my youth.

I have an appointment tomorrow which is going to throw my day off.

[Pipsicle]

Here- that's all I got today.