New (Sort Of) Food Routine

Since the Eater Hospitalization with diverticulitis, I've been trying to find a fairly simple way to plan meals. Saturday I FINALLY found one: Diabetes Meal Planning Made Easy, 4th ed. by Hope S. Warshaw. I'm now working on eating 1,400-1,600 calories per day. Actually, I think I'll be okay on that. And every couple of weeks I'll jump up to the 1,600-1,900 range so my body doesn't get too used to the minimal amount of calorie intake. That piece of information I remember from the Hilton Head Metabolism Diet that Brian and I did for a while back in the late 1980s.

The hardest part will be 5 oz. of meat. That's not a lot spread out during the day. On the other hand, there's enough on the menu to provide three meals and two snacks (or three, depending on how I shift things around). This evening I still have two starches, a milk, and a fat. That looks like six ginger snaps (woo hoo!), 2/3 of a cup of yogurt, and a tablespoon of peanut butter. Since this was Day 1, I should do better tomorrow.

This evening I fixed tomorrow's lunch and two snacks while fixing dinner. At least it was better than expending all that energy on preparing one meal. It still took a lot. I used almost every measuring cup and measuring spoon in my entire kitchen. And the new scale, which I purchased when I went grocery shopping today.

So I'm relearning a lot of nutritional information that I knew at one time. Actually, it's more reinforcement, because I managed to come pretty close to the calorie range over the past couple of months, even if the nutritional balance was a little off. The other major problem was many days I'd eat one large meal and two small ones.

Little bit, by little bit, I'm getting things back into balance.

Peace,
Jeff

Walking

I went out for a walk during the first half of my lunch break. Outside. Walking. I haven't been able to do that for weeks. It's either been too cold, too yucky, or we've been too busy at work. Pretty soon I'll be able to walk from home to the train station in the mornings and back again in the evenings. I thought about it this morning, but it was 22 degrees outside. That's just too cold to be outside for the 20 minutes it takes to walk to the station.

I do "walk" most days. What I actually do is pace in my apartment while reading in the evenings. However, it is effective, and I can see the difference in my legs; not to mention that between the walking and watching what I eat, I am losing weight gradually. Faster would be more gratifying, but I'm more likely to keep it off the way I'm doing it this time.

My plan is to start bicycling again, with the ultimate goal of being able to take another bike tour next year. There are still a couple of trips in Ireland that I'd like to take, and the same company now offers a variety of trips in several other countries. They also offer some walking tours, but I really enjoyed the biking I did in Ireland. I can't believe it's been almost seven years since my last trip.

But walking is enjoyable, too. I like walking in the City at lunchtime. Lots of people watching as well as seeing how the area changes gradually. And the exercise is good.

My lunch break is about over, so it's back to my work.

Peace,
Jeffri

Sweet--And Not So Sweet--Temptation

I walked into work last Wednesday two days into the New Year and a New Year's Resolution. I sat at my desk, fired up my computer, and started going through the backlog of email. After about an hour and a half, one of my coworkers arrived and put out a box of chocolate for folks in the office to share. And where did he put it? On the edge of the cubicle walls between me and another coworker. Not fair!

The following day, someone else brought in a box of chocolate, which got placed on another corner of my cubicle. Sheesh! Fortunately, I made it through the end of the week without eating any chocolate from either box. I have even made it through the first three days of this week without eating any.

Last night my Education for Ministry (EfM) seminar group celebrated my birthday, complete with a birthday cake. I had none, not even a small taste. Not fair!

Ordinarily, this would require only a moderate amount of willpower. The problem is that the stress level throughout the office is high, and climbing higher, because of the ongoing reorganization. It will continue to grow, because we have at least a week and a half before they announce the selections of candidates for positions in the new structure. We all have different ways of dealing with stress, and let's face it, sugar is my drug of choice when it comes to coping. However, I have finally come to terms with the fact that sugar is not my friend. That I have not touched the candy and did not have a piece of cake is therefore a very big deal.

Other unhealthy temptations I am not doing so well avoiding. For instance, I find myself going over to StandFirm on a regular basis and reading posts and comments there. I tell myself that there are a couple of reasonable posters there, or that they are a good source of news about what the so called reasserters are up to. Or I resolve that I will only read the posts and not the comments. As if! And almost every time I go read something there, I come away feeling angry, defensive, and wanting to lash out at them the way they do at others. So why do I go over there and let my buttons get pushed? Maybe it is my drug of choice on the blogosphere. Maybe I need to go cold turkey with it, too...

Peace,
Jeffri

Fast Away The Old Year Passes

As the last hours of 2007 slip by, I find myself in a reflective mood. This happens often at the turn of the year, as my birthday quickly follows the New Year. I can easily talk myself into a depression thinking about all the "might have beens." Not this year. There are too many positive and hopeful things to think about as I approach my birthday.

One of them is the example of my high school classmate Allan Karl who is travelling around the world on his motorcycle. You can find take a look at his adventures by clicking on the Worldrider link to the right. After not having visited the blog for a couple of weeks, I checked in yesterday and was amazed to find him in Africa. I spent over an hour catching up with his travelogue. I do not particularly want to travel the world on a motorcycle, a bicycle, on foot, or any other way other than plane, train and ship, but if he can do that in his mid-forties, then I can certainly work toward doing some of the things on my "list." Hmmmm...that sounds like a New Year's Resolution.

I rarely make New Year's Resolutions. I have ever only kept one successfully in my life. When I was in eighth grade I resolved to stop biting my fingernails. I spent a lot of time sitting on my hands for the next three months, but I kept that resolution. And this year I must make a resolution and keep it, since my continued good health depends upon it.

So at the moment, I am looking at 2008 and feeling pretty optimistic. Here's to hoping it stays that way.

Peace,
Jeffri