Bonfire Time!

This post started as something else entirely, and then when I started looking for a couple of photos to include, well--it turned into a very photo-heavy post.

I didn't realize it was going to be 50 degrees today! I just wrote yesterday how I can't wait for it to be nice outside so I can start doing some of the spring cleaning I'm looking forward to. Tomorrow it's supposed to be even warmer.

Jerry is off work today, so we are doing some impromptu cleaning in the garage. And possibly a small bonfire tonight to burn all the excess Amazon boxes and wood scraps. So, I'm going to take full advantage of this nice day and instead of writing a full post, I'll just share a few photos. I started looking through old bonfire photos; living in a rural area, bonfires are pretty much how we socialize in the summer. We used to have friends over for bonfires several times a year until the pandemic ruined everything.

Going through the photos was actually kind of bitter-sweet! There are pictures of Mark when we would have small fires in my parents' driveway during trick-or-treating; a picture of my friend Sarah who passed away from melanoma shortly after Mark died; there are several couples who have since divorced; and a couple of people that I used to be close with but lost touch through the years. And a couple of people I've gotten even closer with since then. Not to mention seeing my kids go from toddlers to adults!

If nothing else, it REALLY makes me want to host a bonfire this spring when it warms up. The last few years have been a trial in friendships for sure; keeping in touch during the pandemic was hard, even with video chatting. There is nothing like being around actual people, face-to-face!

Eli--making s'mores is his favorite part of a fire ;)

Fourth of July sparklers--naturally, the boys had to pretend they were light sabers.

This was at a Winer's meeting at Renee's house for Halloween in 2012. I was Superwoman--I needed a costume, so I borrowed from a friend!

My friends Sarah--I think of her at least once a day--and Shannon (I actually got together with her last month for the first time since pre-pandemic)

My friend Stacie, who I've lost touch with.

Several of Noah's birthday parties have included bonfires (he was born in July)

A fire on the beach at my parents' house

The kids playing with Joey--he loves the water!

This was not our fire, but the neighbors' behind us. I really thought they were going to catch the trees on fire!

This picture made me laugh--Noah stoking the fire, Eli playing with Joey in the background, and Joey deciding it was a good time to poop mid-play.

This was Mark's birthday in 2011. He's sitting by the fire drinking his beloved coffee.

For Mark's birthdays, my dad used to put a piece of copper pipe in the fire to make pretty colors.

What is a fire without s'mores?! This was at Jeanie and Shawn's property in the U.P.

Probably the first fire of the year, when we burn boxes and wood scraps

Joey looks so young! He's getting gray on his face now :(

I LOVE this picture of Eli and me! We both remember the taste of those plums like it was yesterday. We ate a ton of them--they were so juicy and sweet.

Jerry face ;)

Me, taking a picture of Dave who was taking a selfie of him, Jerry, and Jason--while Jerry took a picture of me taking a picture of them. 🤣

This was my point-of-view.

Renee and me--I love that glow on our faces where you can't even see the fire but you can tell it's there.

I have no idea what was happening here! Definitely not our typical bonfire weather.

And Jeanie and Shawn's property. Joey loved hanging out by the fire.

This was when OUR fire seemed out of control. Jerry always underestimates how big it can get.

Just Shawn, adding a log to the fire, haha

My parent's 50th wedding anniversary (which we celebrated at Jeanie and Shawn's)

Finally, this was from last fall. We downgraded our enormous fire pit to a smaller ring, and I like it much better. It's cozier and easier to chat with everyone. It'll be interesting to see how we manage to burn boxes though!

This was a fun stroll down memory lane. I can't wait for bonfire season!

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Spring Cleaning

I think I write a post like this every year, but this is the time of year where I get very antsy waiting for the weather to break--so that I can start spring cleaning! So fun, right? ;)  There are so many things I want to work on but it's too cold to be washing windows outside or cleaning the garage with all the doors wide open.

Today in particular, I really wanted to finish weather proofing the windows (I did half of them when we had a few nice days outside). To do that, though, I have to remove the bottom half of the window--and with temps in the SINGLE DIGITS over the past few days, there is no way that I'm going to be opening the windows.

Instead, I walked around the house and made a list of all of the things I want to do this spring. Housework things. Aside from cleaning, I also want to touch up paint, hang pictures, and stuff like that. I'm sure my excitement to spring clean will wane after a couple of days of actually doing it, but I figured I might as well make a list while I feel motived. I'll be so glad to get things done.

So, for what is quite possibly the most boring post of the year, I'm going to list the tasks that I hope to get done before summer. It's a long list, and I likely surely won't get everything done, but here goes...

TO CLEAN:

*Vacuum all of the air vents.

*Clean the living room sofa.

*Clean the kitchen cabinets, inside and out. Touch up paint where it was chipped from moving furniture and things.

*Wipe down all of the walls from floor to ceiling. Today I noticed the dust up by the ceiling and wow--I really need to keep up with it.

*Clean the appliances--stove, refrigerator, dishwasher--really well.

*Wipe down all of the floor molding. I didn't realize just how much dust that would collect over the winter!

*Clean the blinds. Worse than grocery shopping! ;)

*Clean and organize the garage. It's never ending--every time I do a project, it's a disaster again.

*Power wash the exterior of the house. Someone egged our house in the fall and threw the eggs really high (near the top of the rise of the roof). Spraying it with the hose did nothing. We like to power wash the house every year before the "bug guy" comes to spray in the spring (to prevent spiders!).

*Go through closets and donate, sell, or throw away what we don't want or need.

*Clean the things that get ignored most of the time--the top lip of the casing around doors and windows, light switches, washing machine (the exterior), behind the TV console, things like that.

This is 100% how I do things, haha

TO REPAIR/REPLACE/ADJUST:

*Replace a small section of floor molding in the dining room. I removed it when I thought I wanted to put a cabinet there, so there is no molding in the corner.

*Fix or replace some of the interior doors. That was the first thing that Jerry and I did when we started remodeling and we had no clue what we were doing. We didn't do it correctly, and I really want to fix it.

*Replace the bottom sill of one of the windows in the living room. It's gotten a little warped over the last year so I want to fix it before it becomes a big problem.

*Rent a carpet cleaner to clean the carpet in the boys' bedrooms.

*Adjust the towel holder in the bathroom (to make it smaller).

*Replace the thermostat in the hallway. It hasn't been very consistent and I think it's just old.

*Replace the felt pads on the chair legs in the dining room. They tend to collect pet hair over time and the adhesive wears off.

MAINTENANCE:

*Re-caulk the boys' bathroom.

*Level and weatherproof the patio door. I really don't want to have to replace this anytime soon, so I basically want to give it a tune-up.

*Stain the back deck and the stoops. (Jerry and I have been wanting to do this but we're so intimidated! We even bought the stain last summer but we never started.)

*Flush the tankless water heater with vinegar. (We do this once a year)

*Landscaping! My nemesis. Now that I have a blank canvas after the work I did last year, it's time to plant some stuff. Low maintenance stuff.

Okay, that list is long! I would say that it's overwhelming, but I'm actually looking forward to tackling it. (I say that now, but we'll see how I feel when I've been working on it for a while, haha.) Some of the stuff I can obviously do now; today, I replaced the door knob/lock set of the garage. Our key kept getting stuck in the lock and I didn't even want to lock it because it was hard to get back in! So I went to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store and bought a nice replacement knob. (I love that store for when we need things around the house! Whenever I have to replace something, I like to check there first.)

My favorite part of spring cleaning is going through closets and choosing what to keep, sell, donate, or throw away. And then organizing what's left! I'll probably work on that this week while the weather is still cold. And as soon as we have some nice days outside, I plan to start doing the outdoor stuff.

Does anyone else look forward to spring cleaning like this? No?

I saw these "Monica clean" spring cleaning tips and I thought it very appropriate--as you know, Jerry and I are huge Friends fans. And as much as I hate to admit it, I am very much like Monica!

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Irony On a Thursday Morning

This is just the story about my morning on Thursday. I want to write about it because it was kind of unbelievable! (I thought this would be a very short story, but I think I like to set the scene... hahaha)

As I've mentioned a million times, I despise grocery shopping. It's not so much the actual shopping part--walking up and down the aisles--but planning a menu, looking through the pantry and fridge to see what we need, making a list, going to the store and winding my way through people, scanning my groceries, bagging them in reusable bags, loading the car, then unloading the car, carrying the bags into the house while simultaneously trying to keep all of the pets from going outside when my hands are full, and then putting the groceries away.

There are just so many other things I'd rather be doing; I think the only "chore" I hate more than grocery shopping is cleaning the bathroom. (Also true is that I don't like others to shop for me! I have a whole system and it works; it's just not my favorite thing.)

Because of this, I put it off as long as I can. It would probably be much easier if I would go every week, but I tend to wait until we really don't have much of anything left. For fresh produce or a couple of ingredients we may need between trips, Jerry or one of the kids can stop on the way home and pick it up.

On Thursday morning, I couldn't procrastinate any more. Out of nowhere, I decided to go to a different grocery store to change things up and hopefully make it a little more interesting. We have a store called Meijer (I think it's only in the midwest) which is enormous and carries billions of groceries in addition to all of the other stuff that superstores have.

I really don't like going grocery shopping there because it's way too big, usually very crowded, and just kind of overwhelming. However, they remodeled the store last year and I hadn't been there since the remodel; I thought I'd give it a chance. So, after finishing up my list, I headed to Meijer.

When I walked in, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't crowded for once. Since I hadn't been there in so long, I figured I would really take my time; they have a bigger selection of stuff than my local Kroger, and it's always fun to find new items.

Jerry and I were talking about plantains last week for some reason, and how we'd never tried one. So I even picked up a plantain for us to try. I was SO EXCITED when I saw a sign for passion fruit in the produce section! I *love* passion fruit but I have never seen it at a grocery store. The only time I had it was when we were in Punta Cana in 2014 and it was pretty much all I ate once I realized it doesn't taste like snot with ants in it (hahaha, that's how I described how it looks).

Unfortunately, even though the sign was there, there was no passion fruit. I was bummed, but I knew that I may find it there sometime, which was enough. I also was surprised to see super firm tofu--which is firmer than extra firm tofu--because I've not see that before, either. I have a few recipes I've been wanting to try that call for super firm tofu, so I grabbed a couple packages of that.

I kept finding cool items that we don't have at Kroger--especially things that I thought the boys would like--and I started to change my mind about Meijer. It was quiet, the atmosphere was calm, I was finding items I was excited to bring home... I even thought to myself, "I could totally get on board with grocery shopping more often if I do it here. This is nice!"

My cart was fully loaded. I still dreaded the checkout process and putting groceries away, but I knew the kids would be happy to have a fridge and pantry full of food, especially new things we hadn't had before. I even texted Eli a picture of a couple of things and said, "Look what Meijer has! Want me to get these for you?"

I started making my way to the front of the store to check out when an announcement came over the speaker: "We apologize for the inconvenience, but our computer systems are down so we aren't able to take credit cards or debit cards. We can still take cash at register 13 and at the service desk. We are working as quickly as we can to fix the problem. It could be 10 minutes or it could be all day--we don't know."

Instantly, my heart just sank and I could feel my face and ears get hot. The noises around me got muffled and sounded like I was under water. I was so stunned I just stood there, probably with my mouth gaping open, unsure of what to do. I knew I definitely didn't have the cash to buy all the groceries but I figured I could just walk very slowly, take my time, and of course the registers would be working again soon.

When I got to the front of the store, all of the people I thought weren't there suddenly appeared--in a single file line in aisle 13.

I dug through my purse to see if I had cash and I found $18--no idea where it came from, because I never have cash--so I looked at my groceries to contemplate buying just a few things that I couldn't get at Kroger. The line, growing longer by the minute, was probably about 40-50 people deep.

My head was spinning and I stared at my cart for probably five full minutes, trying to figure out a plan. Leave the cart and go to an ATM? By the time I got back, the line would be even longer. Even if the computers came back online, it would take FOREVER for all of those people to check out. I had already been at the store for two hours, an hour longer than I'd planned, and I was supposed to go help Becky load the moving trailer in a few hours.

I decided to ask if I could put my whole cart in a cooler and come back later. I used to work there (like 100 years ago) and I remember doing that a few times for people who had forgotten their wallet or something like that. There were exactly zero employees around, probably because they were all working on the computer situation. I walked around for a few minutes and finally found an employee.

When I asked if I could put my groceries in a cooler, she said that she didn't think they could do that, but I could go to the back of the store and ask in the dairy department. I really didn't want to go looking for employees (like I said, the store is huge) while pushing a full cart. By this time, it had been probably 30 minutes and they still weren't taking credit cards.

Ultimately, I left the store with nothing. NOTHING.

I was fuming when I got into the car. For someone who hates grocery shopping, it was a nightmare come true. I know, the store can't help that their computers were down--stuff like that happens with modern technology--but I just felt so stunned.

On the way home, my anger kind of subsided and I either totally lost my mind or I simply found humor in a situation I never wanted to be in.

I started laughing. Out loud. Maniacally. By myself.

By the time I got home, I was almost giddy. I couldn't wait to tell Jerry because I knew he would understand the irony of this happening to ME of all people. He knows how much I hate grocery shopping.

He couldn't believe it either, and he felt so bad for me. I didn't know it at the time, but when I was busy doing something (I don't even remember what) he grabbed my list and went to Kroger. The cart wasn't nearly as full, as it was lacking the impulse buys, but he got what we needed. I was SO grateful!

I think I'll be sticking to my small, crowded cozy Kroger from now on. And I'll remember this incident every time I complain about grocery shopping! ;)

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Friday Night Photos #108

Well, Becky left for Minnesota this morning. Jerry and I went to Brian's last night to help Becky load the moving trailer; I also wanted to say goodbye to Becky. I know that I'll still see her, but probably only once or twice a year. Being me, I cried all the way home; I'm really going to miss her.

She told me about Luke's new school, though, and WOW--they start learning Latin in kindergarten! Luke is unbelievably smart and it sounds like a great school for him. The charter school is hard to get into, but Becky just so happened to be in the right place at the right time and the right person happened to overhear her ask about a spot for a transfer student--it definitely seems like it was meant to be, because a spot for a transfer opened up two days prior, and they gave it to Luke. Since Riley is his sibling, she'll automatically be able to go as well in the fall when she starts kindergarten.

Anyway, I don't have a lot to post today, but here goes...

Brian 3D printed another puzzle to put together and said it was harder than the first (I think I posted a picture of that one a couple of weeks ago). These are the pieces. I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do with it! All of the pieces come together into one layer, forming a square that is the height of the short side of the pieces (that's a terrible explanation). The whole time I worked on it, I wasn't even sure if I was doing it correctly!

Jerry and the boys were watching a show in the living room and I didn't want to be a distraction while doing this at the table, so I ended up bringing it into the bathroom so I could use the hard floor and sit on the comfy floor mat, haha. I sat there for probably about three hours; I forgot to look at the time so I'd know how long it took me to put together. After the show was over, Jerry came in and took this picture of me. I was concentrating so hard that I didn't even really realize he was there.

In the end, I decided to ignore the colors (apparently, the pieces on the bottom should be one color and the top layer should be the other). I got down to one last piece and it was clear to me that it would fit there--but I couldn't get it in! I'm not sure if the pieces were supposed to be woven together like I did it; there was no way I could slide that piece in, so I called it done. And now I can't take it apart, hahaha. That's why I'm not sure if I did it right or not--I think the pieces were supposed to drop into place easily. I'll have to ask Brian when he gets home from Hilton Head. Regardless, I really like putting these puzzles together!

My dental hygienist raved about Waterpiks at my last two cleanings, so Jerry and I finally bought one a few months ago (he has the same hygienist). I resisted getting one because it just seemed so messy. Well, I wasn't wrong! I made and sent this meme to Jerry a few days ago to explain the water that he'd likely see all over the mirror, walls, and even ceiling, hahaha. I'd put the nozzle on but apparently I didn't snap it in well because when I turned it on, the nozzle came off and water just started spraying everywhere.

Since I've felt back in control with my food intake lately, I decided it was safe to have peanut butter in the house again ;)  I have been kind of obsessed with apples and peanut butter this week. I think I'm going to make some granola to put on top, too. The apples + peanut butter + granola was a favorite snack for a long time when I was losing weight way back in 2009-2010.

Here is Joey while on our walk the other day. Despite being FREEZING cold outside, it was a pretty day! Joey was thrilled to run along the lake (when it's muddy we stay on the road, and this is the muddy time of year here). We walked three miles of the old route we used to do daily. 

Poor Joey has had his bed taken over by cats. Usually it's Chick that sleeps on it (he sprawls out and takes up the whole space) but I thought it was sweet to see Phoebe there yesterday. She kind of follows the sunlight through the house because she likes the warmth.

This morning, I decided I really needed to read some more of my book. I've been reading this same book for MONTHS. I like it! But I just haven't been into reading lately. I'm going to try to finish it this weekend. I'm reading The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado--from my favorite genre, a good thriller about a serial killer. It's actually the first of a series, so I may read more from the series when I finish.

I spread out all of my sewing stuff today to do whatever hemming/mending/altering I had in queue. I have a bag in my closet where I throw things that will need the sewing machine. It's actually kind of fun--once a month or so, I pull it out and work on it. Today, I reinforced a couple of seams in Eli's sweatshirts and I switched a pair of Noah's pajama bottoms to a drawstring instead of the elastic band. He was going to get rid of them because the elastic was "weird".

I need to hem the black jeans I recently bought at Goodwill, and I had the idea today to use a flat lock stitch with my serger to make the hem kind of different. I did this with a pair of fingerless mitts that I made and I loved how it looked. This was a test piece with denim and I was so excited to do the hem this way! 

However, I was having SUCH a hard time with it. Once the test piece came out well, I thought all was good. But every time I would try to do the hem of the jeans, one of the threads would break and/or I'd end up with a huge tangled mess. Meanwhile, Duck was driving me CRAZY with his need for attention. After a couple of hours, I gave up. I'll try it again later, because I think it will look cool when it's done.

And finally, I forgot I had taken this screenshot. I posted this on Facebook in 2014, but when I saw it come up, it made me laugh again. Noah was only nine years old at the time and I was impressed by his analogy!

And I'm out. Have a great weekend! xo

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Three Things Thursday: Old Phrases

This is kind of a short, silly post for today; I started working on a different topic and then two hours later, had only written half of it! So I'm going to save that for another time when I don't feel rushed. (Today has been crazy--I need to remember to write about my day this weekend because it was kind of a mess.) I'm going to head over to help Becky load the moving trailer soon, because she leaves tomorrow morning for Minnesota.

I don't know why this topic pops into my head every so often, but there are some common phrases people use that I realized most kids probably have no idea why we say them. And it's kind of fun to think about more that we may use and have lost their original meaning. Here are a few that we use on an everyday basis...

1. Hang up the phone/Dial a number

Anyone remember having a rotary dial phone that hung on the wall, with the long spiral cord that got stretched out and tangled over time, most likely a beige color? I imagine many kids today would have no idea what it is, let alone how to use one. We still say "hang up the phone" and "dial a number", but it doesn't really mean the same thing it used to. We would literally have to "hang up" the phone on the wall, and use the rotary dial to place a call.

I was surprised to see that I have a picture of me holding one! Hahaha

2. Roll down the car window

My 2010 Jeep Patriot (which Eli drives now) still has the good old manual windows, where you have to rotate a lever to raise and lower each individual window. It also has manual locks! I actually chose those on purpose--I liked the idea of being able to roll down the window in an emergency situation where modern technology might fail. Same with the locks.

I'm probably super old-fashioned, but I do think simple is better in a lot of circumstances. I always tell Jerry (and this sounds like something my dad would say) that the more bells and whistles something has, the more things there are that could go wrong with it. I frequently resist current technology in favor of the old-fashioned manual versions of things. Anyway, thanks to my Patriot, my kids understand the meaning of "rolling down" the window--although they totally disagree that simple is better! Hahaha.

3. Rewind the video

Remember the "Be Kind, Please Rewind" expression that was posted at video stores like Blockbuster? I actually used to work at a video rental store, and when people would return video tapes without rewinding them, I would put them in a "rewinder" to make sure all of the film was shown in the left (or was it the right?) window of the tape. 

"Rewinding" was literally winding all of the filmstrip back to the beginning--a courtesy for people to be able to just insert the tape into a VCR and press play. We still say that we're "rewinding" a video when we're not actually winding anything. I'll have to ask my kids if they know this one!

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If you know of others, please share! I was having a hard time coming up with them, but I do notice them more frequently when going about my day. It's kind of fun to see how the phrases change over the years--and it makes me wonder which modern phrases will be phased out 20 years from now. 

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 94

Like I mentioned yesterday, I had a great week (as far as my eating habits go, anyway)! I didn't really have many challenges, though. Taking Luke and Riley out to eat was easy--Luke wanted to try Panda Express, which literally had NO vegan items on the menu (or so I thought--I didn't know that their noodles are vegan). The location we went to didn't have any of the new vegan options Panda offers. So, I just ate when we got home.

One thing that I *really* need to do is run! I just have not had the motivation to make myself do it. The 10K that Nathan and I signed up for is in less than four weeks and I haven't been training at all. I'm really trying not to beat myself up over it, because nothing good ever comes from that.

My mood has mostly been sad, given the circumstances with Luke and Riley (you can read about that here if you missed it). Logically, I know that exercise is good for one's mood; it's kind of ironic, really, because when I'm not in a good mood, it's hard to make myself just do it. If I run, I know it will boost my mood; and with a better mood, I'm more motivated to run.

I planned to take Joey for a three-mile walk this morning and then follow that up with a short run--two miles--but I ended up calling it quits after Joey's walk. It was SO COLD; even after walking for an hour, I could feel the cold all the way through to my bones. Being mid-March, I didn't even check the temp--27 degrees--before I left. I don't know how I used to run when the temp was in the single digits! The older I get, the less I can tolerate the cold. (As I sit here typing this, I'm wondering why it didn't occur to me to just run on the treadmill.)

Anyway, I wasn't really sure what to expect on the scale this morning. I was super busy yesterday and didn't get to eat dinner until almost 9:00 last night. I made a vegan version of chicken paprikash and it had a lot of sodium--it didn't taste very salty, but I had to keep adding more salt when I was cooking because it kind of bland. It turned out good, and I ate a big bowl of it. I was sure I would see a gain on the scale this morning (just water weight from the sodium) but I was pleasantly surprised to see my weight was down from last week:

At 143.2, I lost 1.4 pounds from last week. I'm happy with that! I wish that the weight would come off as fast as I put it on, but we all know it never works that way, unfortunately.

I was thinking about how quickly I gained back 25 pounds in the winter and I wanted to figure out why. I think what happened is that when I dropped weight really quickly in the fall--about 25 pounds--it was because I was really overwhelmed and stressed and didn't have much of an appetite at all. I was actually kind of worried about losing too much weight, which has NEVER been a problem for me.

So, I think that once my appetite returned, my body tried to make up for the quick weight loss by giving me a bigger appetite than usual. I try to listen to my body--eating more when I'm hungrier, less when I'm not--and over the past couple of weeks, I think my appetite has been smoothing out. It'll be interesting, if nothing else, to see how this goes from here, haha.

Aside from listening to my body, my main goal for this coming week is to RUN. I need to do it--not only for my mental health, but for the 10K. I don't want to struggle through it. Worst case scenario, I'll do a run/walk method; but I'd really like to try to run the whole thing. 

I'm going to write out a commitment here to hopefully hold me accountable this week: I will run three miles on Friday, four miles on Sunday, and three miles on Tuesday. No goal for speed or heart rate or anything like that; just getting in the mileage at a slow pace will be fine.

Well, I am going to go to bed and try my best to fall asleep early. I didn't get much sleep last night because my carpal tunnel syndrome has been awful ever since I was doing all the painting in my bedroom and bathroom. Yesterday, Noah asked me to fix the waistband of a pair of pajama pants he has and I had to pick apart the seam--I always forget that doing motions like that flare up my carpal tunnel.

It doesn't feel nearly as bad as it did in 2018(?) but I'm thinking I may go see another doctor about it. I saw two specialists last time and had a nerve test (I can't remember what it was called), but the doctor said it was "mild". I wanted to punch him in the throat when he said that. A ten on the pain scale is NOT mild--and that's coming from someone who has had a severely broken jaw and two surgeries to repair it. 

Anyway, I'm getting off track here. I'm going to put on my wrist braces and try to sleep. I'm hoping for another good week (that will include three runs)!

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Jerry Loses His Dad Bod: Week 9

Clearly, I spent too much time working on that photo, hahaha--I forgot to take a picture of Jerry before he left for work, so I made one. I even downloaded Star Wars fonts (*groan* I can imagine the targeted ads I'm going to see now for Star Wars stuff!)

Jerry and I had a good conversation about weigh loss today and he brought up a very wise point about trying to lose weight in general and having weekly weigh-ins. I've thought of it before, but the way he said it just seemed to make better sense with a simpler explanation. So, that's what he wrote about today...

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Welcome back. 

Every week it seems like I have an epiphany about weight loss. And it always seems to come off as an excuse for my slow weight loss, but I don't think it is. It's more of a realization and I'm learning something new all the time. So let's just rip the band-aid off, 190.6. That's a gain of 0.6 from last week. 

I did fairly well, or so I thought. I felt heavier over the last couple days and felt a little uneasy about what I was actually doing as far as my diet was concerned. But something dawned on me last night and I think it might ring true with almost everyone that does a weekly weigh-in.

While I always feel like I might be doing okay through the week, I have a tendency to spend the couple days before my weigh-in trying to eat better because I don't want to see the gain on the scale. So, if I can do that for the couple days before the weigh-in why can't I do it every single day? Why can't I just make it a lifestyle change as opposed to treating it like a temporary thing just to meet some number I want to see? 

I stress myself out on Sundays and Mondays because of the weigh-in and it doesn't have to be that way. That said, I will be making another change in how I eat and approach this week and we shall see how well I do. 

Also, I'm a firm believer that old habits die hard. Habits are like Vigo the Carpathian from Ghostbusters 2. He was poisoned, stabbed, shot, hung, stretched, disemboweled, drawn and quartered. Before his head died he said 'Death is but a door, time is but a window. I'll be back.' Those are my habits. LOL. The bad habits die when I work on them and then after some time, they come back.

I talk of bad habits because I have a couple. One glaring one from this week was eating when I'm not hungry. 'There are starving kids in [insert third world country here]'. Every kid heard it growing up. Every kid. As an adult it transformed into not wanting to waste food.

So, I eat everything. Even when I ain't hungry I still eat just because I don't want to waste the food. That's stupid. So, new mindset with that as well--don't eat if I'm not hungry. This will be the absolute hardest thing to do, for sure. More than portion control. More than eating healthy. More than eating slowly. Eating when my body is telling me I should and listening to it will be the hardest thing. 

So, I have my work cut out for me. Wish me luck.

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I felt bad when Jerry said he feels stressed out on Sundays and Mondays because of his weigh-ins on Tuesdays. I wanted this to be a fun series for him! I told him that we can quit this series so he doesn't think that way, but he wants to keep going with it. Hopefully with the realization he had last night about it, he can keep it in mind this week.

I *try* not to have that mentality before my weigh-in, and I've gotten much better about it. In the beginning, I was careful not to eat too much sodium the day before my weigh-in and not eat anything too heavy, etc--it makes no sense in the long run! It works great if you need to drop a few pounds within a week's time, but if you're working on losing a large amount of weight, it's much less stressful to just make better choices daily rather than trying to "catch up" right before a weigh-in.

I've eaten really well this week and I hope to see that on the scale tomorrow--but not enough to stress out today, worrying about sodium and volume of food. I made a vegan version of chicken paprikash for dinner tonight and I had to keep adding salt to it--for a second, I thought, "My weigh in is tomorrow--that's too much salt!" but I'm not going to worry about it. I didn't overeat and the ingredients were healthy, so if I gain a little water weight overnight, it'll come right off if I just continue with healthy habits.

Jerry has always had a hard time with listening to his body's hunger/fullness cues, so I hope this week goes well for him!

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Deep Thoughts With Jerry #10

Well, I wasn't planning to do two Jerry-posts in a row (tomorrow is his weekly weigh-in), but I just had no idea what to write today. This "spring forward" time change (even though it's only an hour) really messed with me. Setting the clocks back an hour in the fall doesn't mess with me like this, but "losing" an hour in the spring really feels like losing a big chunk of the day!

Anyway, I asked Jerry if he'd write a light-hearted "deep thoughts" post. It was either this or a vegan recipe review that did NOT turn out well at all, haha. Here's Jerry...

What is your favorite thing about the place you live?

My favorite thing would have to be the view. We live kinda close to Lake Erie and there are all sorts of marshes and other wetlands around. Across from us is a duck reserve. The DNR came through years ago and got rid of all the fragmite and flooded the area in order to make a refuge for the water fowls. The view is awesome pretty much year round.

What famous animal character are you most like?

Garfield. I know that when Katie reads this she's going to be all like 'WHAT?!' I love to just cuddle up under a blanket and I can fall asleep anywhere, I would like to sleep all day, everyday. Also, he loved lasagna and that's totally me, too!

What is your favorite restaurant?

Another surprise for Katie, Melt Bar and Grilled is my favorite. We have been there twice and each time was amazing! This place makes everything into a grilled sandwich. Everything. They made one called  'Glazed and Confused' that was a bacon cheeseburger between two glazed donuts with sweet berry jalapeño jam. Then it was covered in donut batter, deep fried, and covered in powdered sugar. YUM! From what I understand the place used to be a late night hangout for night owls and stoners and became extremely popular locally. Sadly, it's located in the Cleveland area and not really within a reasonable driving distance. 

Sweet, salty, or sour?

Never, ever sour. Not a fan at all. I would have to say that it would really depend on my mood but I think I'm totally a salty guy. 

Have you ever been to Disneyland or Disney World?

Nope. I flirted with the idea when I was a younger adult, always thinking that if I had kids I should take them there and it would be a great family experience. However, the price made it impossible and the kids weren't really into Disney stuff anyways. Fast forward to my 40s and now I want to go just for the Galaxy's Edge part of the park. It's a Star Wars themed part of the park that sounds like an awesome, unique experience that the kids and I would totally be up for. 

When did you get your first cell phone?

It was in 2000. Bought it from a gas station and had to buy minutes for it. It had a leather case and a flip down receiver. It was also thick and bulky and definitely wasn't a phone you'd want to put in your pocket. 'Is that a Zack Morris cell phone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?'

Desktop, laptop, or tablet... which do you prefer to use?

Well, I have to use a desktop at work everyday and I use a laptop at home. I prefer Apple products and just really grew to hate Windows. I went through numerous PCs in my lifetime. I've had this Macbook for 12 years without any issue. 

What movie could you watch over and over again?

There are numerous movies I can watch. I can watch any MCU or Star Wars movie anytime, from any point, and just be into it. Katie always comments about how I can watch the same movies all the time and she doesn't like to do that. 

If you could be any fictional character who would you be?

Bruce Banner, better known as Hulk. Bruce was always the smartest person in the room. There was a rage that grew inside him and he just started destroying everything and was unstoppable. And when others tried to stop him it only made him more angry, hence making him stronger and more unstoppable. 

If you won the lottery what would you do with all the money?

I would pay off all the debts of my parents, brothers, and sisters. I would make a savings account for my kids, nieces, and nephews. After all that, I would buy some decent sized acreage in the pacific northwest and live off the grid for the rest of my life. Simple. 

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?

Firefighter. My grandpa was a firefighter in Petoskey for years. His house was decorated in all this firefighter memorabilia and awards. My dad was also a volunteer firefighter. To this day I still watch firefighter shows and always think about what could've been if I had chosen that route in life. I know they glamorize it on TV and movies but still... I would've loved to do that. 

Four generations: my grandpa, my dad, me, and Noah

Field trip with Noah and Eli

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