Yes I have been AWOL but with good reason????

It has been a very busy last few weeks and aside from reading several books between the crazy go go go times I haven't really done much of anything else. I got our PODS loaded and stored and I got myself and my dogs driven to New Mexico with a stop for a full day in Broken Arrow to visit my daughter and her family there. Now I am again in a short limbo waiting for the folks I need to talk to about housing to get back to their normal routine. I really want to get into a place as soon as possible so I can set up my office space and get back to writing and blogging. I also need to have a real address to give folks and to do all of the other things necessary for day to day living.
Tomorrow I am taking my beloved chihuahuas to a doggy daycare so I can drive around in the heat looking at potential homes for us to settle into. Wish me luck because I really want to get this part done. I have to settle in and then get over to the campus of the local Community College and get signed up for classes this fall. I feel I will lose all the momentum I have built up with studies in the last year if I don't get that done quickly.
Do I like New Mexico? I really don't know yet. I have not explored much because its too hot for the dogs to be out for long and they need to be walked every two hours which doesn't leave me much exploration time. Once we are in a house then I will get to see what this state can show me. I did like seeing the Southwestern designed overpasses as I drove into the state. They are truly unique and pretty. Right now because of all the fires around the state the air quality is bad. I understand that this is not the norm so once the fires are out and the air clears I will get a better concept of the environment. Wish me well and lots of luck. house hunting has proven a challenge so far.

Turning Point

Today Terry (the hubby) is headed out to New Mexico in his car with the bird. I hope he takes the time to rest on the way because he has plenty of time to get there. Its just under 1700 miles and he is supposed to only do about 600 miles a day max so that he can arrive in three days. We have his temporary quarters set up for him and I will join him in about three weeks or so.
I have the job of packing the POD and finishing up the goodbyes before I can leave. Fortunately when I get there I will have so much to do I should get plenty of exercise. I will need to begin right away home hunting. We might buy but most likely will rent for a year first. It depends on what is available. I prefer to rent and get to know the area first then after a year buy something knowing better where we would want to live. At our age I envision a retirement community of active seniors for us. But who knows what is out there. I understand Santa Fe is actually close enough for the job and a real nice area. But I bet there are plenty of other nice areas as well. The adventure of discovering them will soon begin.....Stay tuned.

Anticipation

Anticipation is a feeling that can be fun to have or it can be dreadful to experience. Sometimes it can be a little bit of both. Knowing of our impending move across country fills me with anticipation.

First, there is the fact that I have less than two weeks to get everything ready for the move. I am still waiting for the relocation specialists to give us appointments. I expect that to happen today but one never knows what new delay can happen. I had expected to have that schedule two days ago.

Next, there is money of course. We do have the luxury of the company paying the moving bills so there is that at least. We still have to cover gas and at least one overnight but most likely two overnight stays in hotels to remain sane. I think it is wise to feed the vehicle we drive as well. Have you noticed gas prices lately? We have to feed ourselves and the pets traveling with us and adhere to a healthy diet. That will be fun. We are however, down to the wire in our bank account. We have enough to get there and to survive on but we will be very tight for about two months. It has been a long financial drought for us and all of our resources are tapped out. This job could not have come at a better time.

We have too much stuff. I want to rid myself of most of it. I feel it ties me down. To help address the money issue I will be taking advantage of a storage facility yard sale where we have much of our extraneous stuff stored. Granted much of this is stored because we have not lived in our own place for nearly two years now. Right after my husband was laid off from his job we moved in with our adult daughter. She had just purchased a house and made room for us in it. We stored about 70% of our things thinking it would just be a few months before finding another job. This turned into two years. Now I get to go through it all. Much of it we can sell and if I end the day with a few more dollars for the trip and a lot less stuff to ship I will be a happy woman. I just am not looking forward to being in the heat all day selling but it may be worth it.

Then, there is the eating healthy thing on the road. Can it be done? I am beginning to realize I have very odd eating habits. I may even have a borderline eating disorder. I would rather just have a protein drink that I have measured out and know exactly how many grams of protein and how many calories are in it, than to eat something at a restaurant.  I am picky about that protein drink too. It may be difficult to do this on the road. For three days I have agreed to try to eat real food. This scares the crap out of me. I will be stuck in a car all day long with 15 minute breaks every two hours to walk the Chihuahuas. Will this give me enough exercise to prevent gaining ten pounds? Yikes. I won’t have access to my scale either. Oh well I do know it will not kill me but again YIKES!!!!!!

I know this is going to happen; I just am not sure how it is going to happen. I can plan furiously but nothing ever quite sticks to the plan. I have books to listen to on the road. I even downloaded a couple of audiobooks my husband will enjoy. So we should be able to enjoy the trip even when we run out of things to discuss or are out of radio range. I will be relieved to get to the other side of this anticipation experience. Who wouldn't?

To Keep or not to Keep….That’s the Real Question

By the end of today I will have a move schedule for packing  and loading and then leaving. I get to think about prep right now and I have already taken a few small steps to prepare. I began of all places in the bathroom. It is time to toss all of those less than half full bottles of this and that. I am trying to use stuff up before the packers get here so I can toss the empties. I sorted through all of the hair stuff and am surprised at how much I have in the way of bands, elastics, brushes, and combs. I think most of that has to go. I experiment a lot with combs and brushes and end up with many I never use more than once or twice.

Next stop is the kitchen. The things I use the most in the kitchen are keepers of course.  I have a ton of things I haven’t nor has my husband used the whole time we have been in this home. Part of that is that this is our daughter’s house and we have been more or less extended stay guests for just shy of two years. She bought this house two years ago and we moved in using our things because our daughter is a single professional and has no kitchen items of her own at all. I will be spending this afternoon listening to an audio book and sorting through all of this stuff. There is more in storage too. Sigh!

We have living room furniture that has to go to the dump. I refuse to haul it nearly all the way across country in the state it is in. The couch and love seat has broken springs and could not support a feather much less this hardy body of mine much longer. It is definitely time to replace them and the city collectors are hauling them away on Friday. Yay!  Again, there is more unneeded furniture in storage to be addressed as well. I just don’t want to haul it over land from NC to NM. I will rid these things later this week when the DH and I go start sorting through the storage space. The things located in the rented storage space have not seen the light of day in the two years since we put them there. I barely remember what is actually there. I suspect we can divest of most of it with little pain. At least I can. There are some pictures and things I know I want to keep and some kitchen stuff I stored to keep out of harm’s way (my adult children are hard on my things). I am hoping this will be the lightest load we have ever had to move.

So wish me luck as I try to pare down what is a long life of accumulation. I hope I can let it go or be allowed to let it go since it is not all mine. The hubby is rather attached to a lot of things and we have always hauled it around. Don’t ask what these things are but there is a lot of it. LOL!

Food? What Food? I Have to Eat food?

I am not sure I would qualify as a Bariatric Bad Girl or not but since the ones I know best are asking us long timers to blog a typical day of eating I thought why not?

I should not be held up as an example of what is proper in the eating department I am not excited by food. I don’t experiment with recipes and I am not creative in the kitchen. Other than watching Alton Brown I hate cooking shows on TV.

My day starts at around 5:30 to 6 am. I have 12 ounces of a warm protein drink I make every morning before I eat or drink anything else. I also have my supplements at this time. This drink is the only creation in the kitchen I have ever come up with and I have tweaked it to perfection for my taste. I heat up 12 ounces of nonfat milk with a splash of SF vanilla syrup in the microwave. This has 12 grams of protein. After getting it to around 125 degrees, I stir in 3 or 4 packets of PurVia and two tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa. I stir in one scoop of Unjury unflavored protein (20 grams protein). I top this off with canned whipped cream. This comes to under 250 calories. I am good to go with this for about 2 to 2.5 hours.

Between 7:30 and 8:30, I have breakfast and I make sure it is solid food even if I don’t feel like it. I always have one egg either scrambled or boiled. With this, I will have a piece of sausage or two slices of bacon. If that’s not available then the egg has to do.

Between 10 and 11 am, I will have a piece of fruit such as a cup of grapefruit or a banana. With it I will have either a RTD Isopure plus zero carb drink or a piece of cheese.

Around 1:30 or 2:00 I have another cocoa drink.

Around 4 pm I will have a V8 juice or an avocado. I may also have some cheese.

More often than not, I do not really eat any dinner. But, when I can I will have a piece of steak, as much as I can comfortably eat at around 6 to 7 pm. I may have a little veggie and rice with it. Or, maybe I have some chili if I have it available. But, I have to cook that and I don’t cook much. However, usually I just have another protein drink (yep the cocoa again). I make sure I have a minimum of 100 grams of protein a day.

Now to keep this honest and real, I have to let you know I am not compliant with all the rules. I will eat candy but pay for it so I don’t do it often. I will eat all kinds of treats but only small amounts lest there be a crash in my blood sugars. I drink those 5 hour energy drink things several times a week but no more than one in a day. I will buy a coke from time to time and sip from it a few ounces at a time over a week until it’s gone. (That would be a 20 ounce size and not diet.) I have given up biscuits completely because they aren’t worth the crappy feeling I get from them and other bread. I will eat crackers with cheese from time to time and I keep an emergency stash of peanut butter crackers around at all times but don’t snack on them because they are boring. They do serve a purpose though when my blood sugar tanks below 60. I am a total sucker for birthday cake and cupcakes with the piled up frosting and will eat them if they are around. I do have to deal with the consequences though and just accept it and eat it anyway. I will eat a little bit of brownie when my husband or kids make them but I don’t get too excited by them and find I can ignore them usually after a small square.

I do not choose to revolve my life around food and try to just eat what I have too to stay alive. Sugar was always my downfall and now still is but in a different way. Like many others, I have gone from being a Type II diabetic to being somewhat hypoglycemic. I eat to prevent to hypoglycemic feeling. If that didn’t happen I would not care to eat that much. As long as sugary foods are out of sight, I don’t think about having them. If they are around I will want to eat at least a little of it. My day is full of school, my dogs and homework. Food has become something I need but don’t really think about until I need it for the most part. It’s just the way I am. I don’t know what normal is but it is my new normal.

Walking for a Cause With My Dog and Friends and Other Rambling Thoughts

Yesterday I walked a 3.1 mile stretch of streets in a circuitous route here in Greensboro to raise money for The March of Dimes. This organization has been around all of my life. Its original mission was to overcome polio. Somehow that miracle happened and they took on an even more challenging mission of ending birth defects. Of course prevention is part of the solution and then treatment when they still happen is also necessary. This organization helps with research and in other areas. It was a great reason to walk.

I am a member of my school's Spanish club and some of the other members made up the team I was a part of. So the walk went very quickly since we were chatting all the way with one another. This is a good way to say goodbye to each other since it was technically our last meeting for the school year as well. They all were very nice to Loki my dog that joined me on my hike. She started out a little shy but once we got going her tail waved high behind her and she smiled all the way. She is a little thing. She weighs about 15 pounds and is half Chihuahua and half something else, possibly Italian Greyhound. Her vet calls her a 'fiest' or a squirrel dog which is a breed of dog common in the mountains of the Carolinas and West Virginia for hunting small game such as well, squirrels. It is not a breed recognized by the AKC. But when I adopted her I was led to believe she is a Chihuahua but it is clear she is not pure bred. So my youngest daughter dubbed her a 'Faux'huahua. Whatever she actually is doesn't really matter because she is my gentle little energetic Loki. When I get to do another walk of some kind I think she will be my companion from now on.

After the walk I dropped Loki off at home and then met my group at a Mexican restaurant. I enjoy the atmosphere of being in a restaurant with a group of friends and or family, however, I don't enjoy trying to figure out what to order and eat. I got lucky because the young man to my left had already gotten his plate (I was late because of getting mixed up in the directions) and his plate was filled with exactly the kind of food I can and like to eat so I ordered it as well. When my food arrived I had a sizzling plate of enough food to feed a small country. Then the second part of the dinner arrived with it. Oh well I ate what I could of it and packed up about 85 to 90% percent of it and took it home. My hubby of course was delighted to get a whole meal brought home for him. He got to it while I was in the shower before I could portion a bit more out to save for today. No biggie. What I did eat was delish and maybe I will order it again sometime with the hubby and just eat some and have him eat the rest. That doesn't usually work though because he likes to order different foods than I so he can have more later. So much for my being a cheap date. We don't go out to eat together much anymore anyway since I finally convinced him I don't enjoy eating out.

On this week's agenda, I am finishing up my semester. I have finals and final projects to turn in. Then I can turn my attention to planning my summer. I did decide to not attend school during this summer. I hope to get a job through the temp agency and work through the summer and then get back to classes in the fall. Another plan percolating in my head is to drive across country and stop at various relatives places for a couple of days at a time and then move to the next. I even mapped out a route and figured out the gas cost and everything. I just don't know if it is possible. I know it would be fun for me. I am not sure how much my family would enjoy me just dropping in and spending a couple of days with my three little dogs in tow. Still an adventure for the summer would be fun and it would give me stuff to write about. Hmmmmmm.............

Restless and waiting for Someday to Get Here.

I find myself to be restless these days. School is almost done for this session. I am not getting anywhere in the weight-loss department again. I am putting a lot of irons in my fire and find myself at times not knowing which one i should pick up first. What is a woman to do about this? Right now I will just have to remain a bit restless and pick an iron up one at a time and address it as it comes. Someday, I will find time to do something exhilarating. I am not sure what that will be just yet but I have a list in my mind of things I want to do before I leave this world. It is a long list and I can't be sure I will get to everything. Surely I will get to many of them though. For now I am in a bit of a rut and am bored. I like my life. Its not a bad one. I am not hungry or cold. I can go where I want to go around town and around school. But I know there is a lot more to this world than this little corner. I want to experience it sometime. I know, patience will get me there eventually. Getting my diploma will help tremendously. Its just that I feel tired of putting it off. I guess I am the one that has to make something happen. Things don't just happen by themselves. I will keep blogging and I will keep reading. Most of all I will keep learning and studying. It can be put to good use someday I am sure.