I was sick for a month and a half, but didn't know it!
Well, actually, I knew I didn't feel well, but I didn't know just how sick I was for weeks. I'd gone to the doctor two days before Christmas and had to get shots and antibiotics because of my lungs. The doctor never told me what was wrong. I assumed it was a respiratory infection, but it wasn't terrible so I wasn't worried. We went on our short vacation and I felt ok, so I figured I was over it, but apparently I wasn't. In my posts about the Nutrisystem program we did, I talked a lot about how tired and weak I felt. I still believe it's not a great program to be on, and I still believe the lack of food caused some of it, but I believe now that one of my main problems was that I had walking pneumonia again. I honestly had no idea because I wasn't coughing or anything. I'm almost embarrassed to tell you how I found out I had pneumonia, but since we're friends here, I'll explain.
Let me preface my story with this: I'm not a hypochondriac. I hate going to the doctor and being on medication isn't fun. I may complain about not feeling well, and I might whine if something hurts, but I don't spend a whole lot of time believing I've got some kind of incurable disease. The only thing, health wise, that scares me stupid is that something might be wrong with my heart. We all know I'm paranoid about my heart just...fritzing out. After
what happened to my dad, I worry about that sort of thing. He'd never
had heart problems until the day he had his heart attack and died, and my heart frequently does strange things, so I'm pretty
sure my fears aren't unfounded.
Anyway.
Sunday morning, about a week after the diet debacle, I was sitting in church listening to a woman talk about her husband, who had just survived a massive, damaging heart attack. Like, the kind of heart attack that killed some of the muscle in his heart. It was scary, and the story spooked me. It probably wouldn't have bothered me so much if I hadn't been having chest pains all morning and my left arm hadn't gone numb. I'm not kidding. I'd been sitting there trying to convince myself that I was fine, that I'd be in a lot more pain and distress if it was my heart (as I've learned to do), but it didn't work. Against all attempts to keep calm, I went into one of the most insanely intense anxiety attacks I've had up to that point. If you don't get anxiety attacks, let me explain something: This isn't just being nervous about something. It isn't having a "bad feeling" that won't go away, this is an all over, absolute conviction something is wrong and it doesn't matter if you try and think rationally, it doesn't work. I can only assume that it's some kind of out-of-whack chemical thing in your brain that does it, but it's very real and completely terrifying. I didn't say anything, though. Well, at least not until after lunch. I couldn't calm down or breathe, my chest was still hurting and my arm was still numb. I just jumped into the car and went to the doc-in-the-box. I think I still had a bit of rationality left in me because a) I didn't ask Steve to come with me, b) I didn't go straight to the emergency room, and c) I managed to calm myself down enough to sit quietly in the waiting room until I was called back. Once I got into the exam room, though, I was so scared that I started to cry. I told them my chest hurt and my arm was numb (it totally was) and that my dad had died of heart problems and that I was scared, which got me fast tracked into all kinds of tests and being hooked up to things. I happened to mention that I was pretty sure I was having a panic attack - mainly to explain the crying - and that's where things got confusing. The doctor said "yes, I believe you've been here complaining about chest pains before." I have, but I never thought it was my heart. I'd been there 3 times over a period of five years, maybe, and only a couple of times it was some kind of upper respiratory thing, so I'm not sure what she was talking about. Then the doctor asked if I was stressed and told me that being stressed would damage my heart, even if nothing was currently wrong with it. The EKG was fine, thank heavens, but the other tests showed I had pneumonia, which explained the pain in my chest. Still have no idea about my arm, though. Also, because I'd been sick and hadn't been slowing down or getting treatment, it apparently affected me mentally, which happened the last time I'd gotten pneumonia; panic attacks and all. It's all very strange and tangled up, but I understand it better now than I did. At any rate, she gave me prescriptions for the usual stuff and told me she was also going to give me something to help keep me calm that I needed to take every day. Here is where I am still really confused. As I said, she seemed to remember, or at least think she remembered, me coming into the clinic a lot about chest pains, but she also seemed to think I'd been in a constant state of panic every time I'd been there. I thought that was strange, but who knows? Maybe she remembered me and thought I was over-reacting every time. So she gives me a prescription for something that I thought was like Xanax, or at least some kind of tranquilizer, because she was so worried about my anxiety levels. Once I found out my heart was fine, I felt so much better. I was shaken, but no where near as afraid as I'd been before, so I didn't take one of those mystery pills until the next day. I figured that I needed to try it out and make sure it didn't put me to sleep, but it really didn't seem to do anything at all. In fact, it wasn't until I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I was dying that I even thought to look at what I'd taken.
Imagine being dead asleep and suddenly bolting up, fully awake and in such a state of panic that you literally jump out of bed running. That's what happened to me. It made the panic attack I'd had the day before look like a case of the hiccups. I'd asked Steve to sleep in the living room because I knew I was contagious, but I ran in there and shook him awake and told him I needed to go to the ER, that something was wrong and I didn't feel right. My skin was crawling and my heart was beating so hard that my hair shook. This wasn't just Crazy Town stuff, this was full on terror. It's hard to explain, but I thought my chest was going to explode. If you've ever been startled, imagine that feeling of being startled not going away and only getting stronger. I grabbed the BP cuff we have and put it on, (that might have been some Crazy Town stuff) and my blood pressure was up higher than it had ever been before in my life. Steve was trying to calm me down (bless him, his brain was on straighter than my own) he told me I needed to be still and figure out what was wrong. I wasn't in the mood to be rational, though, and I probably would have jumped into the car and taken myself to the ER (sans pants) had I not woken up enough to realize that I wasn't in pain and I could breathe. I also remembered that I had taken a pill I knew nothing about, which I immediately looked up online. It hadn't been a tranquilizer at all. That doctor had given me a prescription for an antidepressant! What?!
I'm not a doctor, but I do know that you need to know a little bit more about a patient than "Has Occasional Anxiety Attacks" before you put them on antidepressants. Don't get me wrong, the doctor I see in the Walk-In clinic is a great doctor, but I don't see her on a regular basis. I might go there once a year, if even that, and it's for things like sprained ankles that don't heal on their own, or sinus infections or whatever. Antidepressants are no joke. I've been on them before and they did bad things to me, but I have no idea what made her think that was the right thing to put me on. I am convinced she had me confused with another patient. So I spent the rest of the day trying to keep calm and not scratch my skin off. My blood pressure eventually went down and in the process of reading about the pills, I found out I'm not the only one that they affected that way. Apparently, you're supposed to keep taking them and just deal with the violent panic attacks until the medicine itself eventually drains you of feeling. I'm paraphrasing WebMD, of course, but still. Screw that noise.
At any rate, I took my medicine and got over the pneumonia, only to have it replaced by another respiratory infection, and folks, let me tell you, I can't wait to be able to breathe normally again. Sucking on a inhaler is no fun. So that's the story about how I thought my heart was killing me, when in fact, it was my lungs. I'd really like it if we had indicator lights on our bodies that tell us exactly which organ groups are giving us trouble. It'd save me a lot of anxiety.
PS: This took me a long time to write and I can't remember why I went into such a lot of detail. Sorry about that.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
NUTRISYSTEM FAST 5 - CONCLUSION
**This was mostly written late last month, but I didn't finish it until recently. I have my reasons! Why do you have to be so judgy? Guh...
Before I ate lunch on Sunday afternoon, I got on the scale. I was actually scared of weighing myself because if I hadn't lost anything, the whole week of miserable food and being hungry would have been a waste. A week of feeling tired and weak, and not being able to open bottles myself and not going to the gym because I didn't have the strength, and almost crying in target because I wanted a chicken finger and couldn't have it. Not to mention the weird lightheadedness and over bright lights I'd dealt with on a regular basis. All of that would have been for nothing. So I weighed, and the scale showed that I'd lost 4 pounds and 12 ounces. I should have been thrilled. I was glad, to be sure, but I was also pissed. The program was a success, I lost some weight, but was it worth it? Not really.
This program only claims to allow you to lose 5 pounds in a week, and I suppose if I'd been willing to follow through with it to the very bitter end, I technically I could have lost the last 4 ounces to reach the entire 5 pound mark. I know this and I'm not complaining about it. In fact, good for Nutrisystem for keeping their word! However, after going through this process, I have to be honest: The provided food is not really good, I don't think the diet is balanced, and I'm not completely convinced that it's entirely healthy. I DO know it isn't sustainable at all, but more on that later.
Of course, I'm not a nutritionist, so I could be completely wrong about it not being healthy. However, just what I learned while going to see a nutritionist, something about it seemed fundamentally wrong. Your lunch, dinner and the two shakes are supposed to be eaten along with a serving of vegetables. Theoretically, you could have all those things and not be hungry, and you can also probably get most of your vitamins and such. But there is no dairy, very few (if any) complex carbs, little to no sugar (either natural or processed, and believe it or not, you do still need some sugar from time to time) and tiny portion sizes. I actually counted the calories, and if you take just what was in the box, on a average day, you were only given around 830 calories. If you were to add the vegetables, you might get another 150 to 200 calories. Might. Depending on which vegetables you chose and how (if) you cook them, you could have as few as only 30 calories added on. Once I counted the substitutes and snacks that I'd personally had, every day I was barely over 1,000 calories. While that might be great for losing weight, it is not good for either feeling well or healthy. If you go to bed so hungry that you can't sleep, that's bad. If you don't have any energy, and you don't have the strength to do normal things, much less exercise, that's also bad. You might be losing weight, but you are probably missing something important that your body needs. I was taking a multivitamin and still felt like I was sick the whole week. It could have just been me and how my body reacted with the program, but as far as I know I'm healthy and shouldn't have had any bad reactions to cutting back on food.
Here is where I get indignant. The Nutrisystem 1 week program only claims to help you lose 5 pounds, and as far as I can tell, it's telling the truth. If you eat their gross, not-quite-food-flavored-food in the miniscule amounts that they dole out to you on a daily basis during the week, you will lose weight. I'm not going to deny that or say that they are falsely advertising. Maybe if you can stand it and decide to keep on with the monthly Nutrisystem plan afterwards, you can lose more weight. Gobs of weight. Whole peoples worth of weight even. But if you think for a second that doing this Fast 5 thing is going to help you lose weight in a sustainable way, you would be wrong. You know how I know this? I'm writing this entry on Thursday morning, after stopping the program Sunday afternoon. Between Monday and Wednesday, I'd already gained back 3 of the almost 5 pounds I lost. (EDIT: I gained back all the weight by the Sunday of that week.) I haven't been gorging on junk food either. Yes, I had a hamburger on Sunday night, and I finally got some Goldfish crackers on Monday, but 3 pounds in 3 days? Unless I have some kind of weird metabolic disorder (which I'm pretty sure I don't) or I'm eating more than 3500 calories a day (which I KNOW I'm not) this shouldn't be happening. This is a perfect example of what happens with the popular, restrictive diets where you have to leave whole sections of the food pyramid out of your diet. You can not cut things out of your diet and expect to keep the weight off unless you never go back to eating regularly. Restrictive diets, and by that I mean restrictive by the omission of something like sugar, carbs, whatever, are not long term solutions to losing weight. Yes, you may lose some weight while you're on that diet, but going back to eating sugar, carbs, or whatever, will undo it all. I'm not even talking about just eating junk, I'm talking about eating NORMALLY. This Nutrisystem diet is not sustainable unless you decide to pay tons of money to continue on with their program, and even then, you'd have to reduce your calorie intake even further after a certain point or you'll stop losing weight. You can exercise, of course, and that would make you lose weight, but if you're anything like me and you don't have the energy to work out after eating the provided food, you won't be doing yourself any good because you wouldn't be able to work out in a useful way.
So, what did I learn through all this? Well, number one, I guess, is that the Nutrisystem diet food is mostly gross. That is my own personal opinion and I'm usually not that picky when it comes to food. There were a few things I didn't mind eating, but for the most part, it was inedible. Number two, you might lose some weight, but don't expect it to stay gone unless you decided to carry on with the regular, monthy program which is incredibly restrictive and, just FYI, prohibitively expensive for most people. Number three, I've realized that cutting things out of your diet isn't very useful in the long run. Granted, yes, if you want to eat better, you have to change your diet, which might mean cutting out junk food/candy, but cutting out whole food groups or nutrients is bad. You need sugar and you need carbs, and as long as you are eating the better kind of those things, you won't be missing anything. Number four, you really shouldn't rely on programs like this if you really want to lose weight and be healthy. Yes, the program is convenient, since you just pick up what you are supposed to eat that day instead of wondering what you will have to make, but convenience rarely equals quality. Plan out your meals. Make them ahead and freeze them or store them and then grab what you want. This program is really not worth the convenience it affords. Look, I'm not a health nut, and I'm nowhere near as healthy or thin or whatever as I could be, I know this, but going through this program has proven to me that losing weight the right way is far better than trying to do something like this. You may not lose weight as fast, but you'll feel so much better in the long run.
Before I ate lunch on Sunday afternoon, I got on the scale. I was actually scared of weighing myself because if I hadn't lost anything, the whole week of miserable food and being hungry would have been a waste. A week of feeling tired and weak, and not being able to open bottles myself and not going to the gym because I didn't have the strength, and almost crying in target because I wanted a chicken finger and couldn't have it. Not to mention the weird lightheadedness and over bright lights I'd dealt with on a regular basis. All of that would have been for nothing. So I weighed, and the scale showed that I'd lost 4 pounds and 12 ounces. I should have been thrilled. I was glad, to be sure, but I was also pissed. The program was a success, I lost some weight, but was it worth it? Not really.
This program only claims to allow you to lose 5 pounds in a week, and I suppose if I'd been willing to follow through with it to the very bitter end, I technically I could have lost the last 4 ounces to reach the entire 5 pound mark. I know this and I'm not complaining about it. In fact, good for Nutrisystem for keeping their word! However, after going through this process, I have to be honest: The provided food is not really good, I don't think the diet is balanced, and I'm not completely convinced that it's entirely healthy. I DO know it isn't sustainable at all, but more on that later.
Of course, I'm not a nutritionist, so I could be completely wrong about it not being healthy. However, just what I learned while going to see a nutritionist, something about it seemed fundamentally wrong. Your lunch, dinner and the two shakes are supposed to be eaten along with a serving of vegetables. Theoretically, you could have all those things and not be hungry, and you can also probably get most of your vitamins and such. But there is no dairy, very few (if any) complex carbs, little to no sugar (either natural or processed, and believe it or not, you do still need some sugar from time to time) and tiny portion sizes. I actually counted the calories, and if you take just what was in the box, on a average day, you were only given around 830 calories. If you were to add the vegetables, you might get another 150 to 200 calories. Might. Depending on which vegetables you chose and how (if) you cook them, you could have as few as only 30 calories added on. Once I counted the substitutes and snacks that I'd personally had, every day I was barely over 1,000 calories. While that might be great for losing weight, it is not good for either feeling well or healthy. If you go to bed so hungry that you can't sleep, that's bad. If you don't have any energy, and you don't have the strength to do normal things, much less exercise, that's also bad. You might be losing weight, but you are probably missing something important that your body needs. I was taking a multivitamin and still felt like I was sick the whole week. It could have just been me and how my body reacted with the program, but as far as I know I'm healthy and shouldn't have had any bad reactions to cutting back on food.
Here is where I get indignant. The Nutrisystem 1 week program only claims to help you lose 5 pounds, and as far as I can tell, it's telling the truth. If you eat their gross, not-quite-food-flavored-food in the miniscule amounts that they dole out to you on a daily basis during the week, you will lose weight. I'm not going to deny that or say that they are falsely advertising. Maybe if you can stand it and decide to keep on with the monthly Nutrisystem plan afterwards, you can lose more weight. Gobs of weight. Whole peoples worth of weight even. But if you think for a second that doing this Fast 5 thing is going to help you lose weight in a sustainable way, you would be wrong. You know how I know this? I'm writing this entry on Thursday morning, after stopping the program Sunday afternoon. Between Monday and Wednesday, I'd already gained back 3 of the almost 5 pounds I lost. (EDIT: I gained back all the weight by the Sunday of that week.) I haven't been gorging on junk food either. Yes, I had a hamburger on Sunday night, and I finally got some Goldfish crackers on Monday, but 3 pounds in 3 days? Unless I have some kind of weird metabolic disorder (which I'm pretty sure I don't) or I'm eating more than 3500 calories a day (which I KNOW I'm not) this shouldn't be happening. This is a perfect example of what happens with the popular, restrictive diets where you have to leave whole sections of the food pyramid out of your diet. You can not cut things out of your diet and expect to keep the weight off unless you never go back to eating regularly. Restrictive diets, and by that I mean restrictive by the omission of something like sugar, carbs, whatever, are not long term solutions to losing weight. Yes, you may lose some weight while you're on that diet, but going back to eating sugar, carbs, or whatever, will undo it all. I'm not even talking about just eating junk, I'm talking about eating NORMALLY. This Nutrisystem diet is not sustainable unless you decide to pay tons of money to continue on with their program, and even then, you'd have to reduce your calorie intake even further after a certain point or you'll stop losing weight. You can exercise, of course, and that would make you lose weight, but if you're anything like me and you don't have the energy to work out after eating the provided food, you won't be doing yourself any good because you wouldn't be able to work out in a useful way.
So, what did I learn through all this? Well, number one, I guess, is that the Nutrisystem diet food is mostly gross. That is my own personal opinion and I'm usually not that picky when it comes to food. There were a few things I didn't mind eating, but for the most part, it was inedible. Number two, you might lose some weight, but don't expect it to stay gone unless you decided to carry on with the regular, monthy program which is incredibly restrictive and, just FYI, prohibitively expensive for most people. Number three, I've realized that cutting things out of your diet isn't very useful in the long run. Granted, yes, if you want to eat better, you have to change your diet, which might mean cutting out junk food/candy, but cutting out whole food groups or nutrients is bad. You need sugar and you need carbs, and as long as you are eating the better kind of those things, you won't be missing anything. Number four, you really shouldn't rely on programs like this if you really want to lose weight and be healthy. Yes, the program is convenient, since you just pick up what you are supposed to eat that day instead of wondering what you will have to make, but convenience rarely equals quality. Plan out your meals. Make them ahead and freeze them or store them and then grab what you want. This program is really not worth the convenience it affords. Look, I'm not a health nut, and I'm nowhere near as healthy or thin or whatever as I could be, I know this, but going through this program has proven to me that losing weight the right way is far better than trying to do something like this. You may not lose weight as fast, but you'll feel so much better in the long run.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
NUTRISYSTEM FAST 5: DAY 7
This morning I got up, got ready for church, and sat down to eat my breakfast.
BREAKFAST: Cinnamon Raisin Bar. This was actually very good. It was sweet and would have tasted better if I'd heated it up. It had some kind of powdery stuff on it that I couldn't identify, but that didn't deter me from cramming it into my face as fast as possible. I've mentioned that I'd gladly buy some of the Nutrisystem breakfast bars if they were sold in stores, but alas, they are only available through the program. I think, anyway. I could probably order some of them online if I really wanted to search, but I don't think it's come to that yet.
At any rate, church services hadn't even begun before I was already hungry again. I know it must sound like I spend my life in a constant state of hungriness, but I swear that's not true. There are times, I promise, when food isn't foremost in my mind. That hasn't happened much this week, but it is possible. We came home to eat lunch and I just broke. I couldn't do it anymore. What was left in our boxes was ham and bean soup, and ravioli in sauce. I couldn't make myself eat them. I just couldn't do it. All I could think of was being hungry and wishing I was eating something else. I didn't even taste the soup, I just make some veggie bacon and started roasting brussels sprouts, because I'd reached my limit on what I was willing to do to follow this program. So again: Egg, Veggie Bacon, Brussel Sprouts, 100 calorie slice of bread and 60 calories worth of Smarties. After lunch, though, I knew I was going to be done. I realize this is basically be stopping a marathon with the finish line in sight, but I don't care. Forgive me. I'm weak.
I'll write more about this later. I'm going to go get a cheeseburger.
BREAKFAST: Cinnamon Raisin Bar. This was actually very good. It was sweet and would have tasted better if I'd heated it up. It had some kind of powdery stuff on it that I couldn't identify, but that didn't deter me from cramming it into my face as fast as possible. I've mentioned that I'd gladly buy some of the Nutrisystem breakfast bars if they were sold in stores, but alas, they are only available through the program. I think, anyway. I could probably order some of them online if I really wanted to search, but I don't think it's come to that yet.
At any rate, church services hadn't even begun before I was already hungry again. I know it must sound like I spend my life in a constant state of hungriness, but I swear that's not true. There are times, I promise, when food isn't foremost in my mind. That hasn't happened much this week, but it is possible. We came home to eat lunch and I just broke. I couldn't do it anymore. What was left in our boxes was ham and bean soup, and ravioli in sauce. I couldn't make myself eat them. I just couldn't do it. All I could think of was being hungry and wishing I was eating something else. I didn't even taste the soup, I just make some veggie bacon and started roasting brussels sprouts, because I'd reached my limit on what I was willing to do to follow this program. So again: Egg, Veggie Bacon, Brussel Sprouts, 100 calorie slice of bread and 60 calories worth of Smarties. After lunch, though, I knew I was going to be done. I realize this is basically be stopping a marathon with the finish line in sight, but I don't care. Forgive me. I'm weak.
I'll write more about this later. I'm going to go get a cheeseburger.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
NUTRISYSTEM FAST 5: DAY 6
I don't have anything clever or introspective to say. All I know, is that I'm hungry and I hate everyone involved in the creation of this box of food. It is an irrational and unfair hate, but nonetheless it is real and it is huge.
You want to know something weird? Steve actually likes everything he's eaten so far. The only thing he's had any problems with has been the morning shake, and that's only because of the artificial sweetener. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just much pickier than I realized. Or...or...maybe Steve doesn't have a sense of taste, and he's just messing with me. Maybe everything he eats is completely bland to him, and now he's just taunting me with how fine he is with the provided food. He wants me to go crazy. I think that's it! That smarmy fat-head can't taste FOOD IN THE FIRST PLACE!
BREAKFAST: Apple Strudel Bar. This was just OK, rather than very good, but I think it's because it had some kind of artificial flavoring in it. I couldn't pinpoint what the strange taste was, but it tasted much faker than the others. It may have been because it didn't have the fake chocolate or fake peanut butter on it to cover up whatever strangeness I detected. It was fine, though, and since I had it with black tea, it was enough. I was hungry pretty soon after, though.
LUNCH: Cheese Tortellini. This was edible, if not exactly good. The sauce was chunky and had a strange sweet flavor to it, which I've noticed in other Lean Cuisine type Italian foods before, so it wasn't unexpected. There was a LOT of sauce, though. That strange sweet taste, which I think must be some kind of herb, kept me from eating much of the sauce, so I scraped it off as best I could. I pared it with some brussle (s?) sprouts and it was passable. When I was microwaving the sprouts, one of them exploded and jumped clear out of the container to die a mushy death on the bottom of the microwave. I know how it feels. I also had 60 calories worth of Smarties, which was 1/2 the calories of the morning shake that I didn't drink. I just wanted something sweet. I think this whole thing would work better if there was something to look forward to. I think if you do the regular month long program, they do have desserts. I don't want to do the month long thing. I don't think I'd stay sane.
PM SHAKE: OK, I had to do it. I was starving just a couple of hours after lunch. This time I took the Craving Crusher shake and blended it with ice and water. I diluted it too much, so it was just sort of a slightly chocolate flavored ice once I got into it. I didn't drink it all, mainly because it didn't taste like much of anything except the artificial sweetener. I drank about half and couldn't do much more. The shake made me cold. So now I'm cold AND hungry. Bastards.
DINNER: Chili with Beans. There was a three tier reaction to eating the chili. First: taste "Oh, thank goodness, it tastes good!" Second: Chew "Crap, it's got that weird sweet taste." Third: Feel "NOPE. NOPE. NOPE. NOPE." The meat felt wrong and it also had the metallic taste that all food packaged in that kind of container always has. Again, I went with my replacement meal of an egg and veggie bacon. I added toasted spinach and a piece of 100 calorie bread (I realized it was the first bread I'd had all week.) I had to add some almonds at the end of the day, and otherwise I was fine!
This diet sucks. Seriously, unless you literally don't care what your food tastes like, I don't see how anyone could do this long term.
You want to know something weird? Steve actually likes everything he's eaten so far. The only thing he's had any problems with has been the morning shake, and that's only because of the artificial sweetener. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just much pickier than I realized. Or...or...maybe Steve doesn't have a sense of taste, and he's just messing with me. Maybe everything he eats is completely bland to him, and now he's just taunting me with how fine he is with the provided food. He wants me to go crazy. I think that's it! That smarmy fat-head can't taste FOOD IN THE FIRST PLACE!
BREAKFAST: Apple Strudel Bar. This was just OK, rather than very good, but I think it's because it had some kind of artificial flavoring in it. I couldn't pinpoint what the strange taste was, but it tasted much faker than the others. It may have been because it didn't have the fake chocolate or fake peanut butter on it to cover up whatever strangeness I detected. It was fine, though, and since I had it with black tea, it was enough. I was hungry pretty soon after, though.
LUNCH: Cheese Tortellini. This was edible, if not exactly good. The sauce was chunky and had a strange sweet flavor to it, which I've noticed in other Lean Cuisine type Italian foods before, so it wasn't unexpected. There was a LOT of sauce, though. That strange sweet taste, which I think must be some kind of herb, kept me from eating much of the sauce, so I scraped it off as best I could. I pared it with some brussle (s?) sprouts and it was passable. When I was microwaving the sprouts, one of them exploded and jumped clear out of the container to die a mushy death on the bottom of the microwave. I know how it feels. I also had 60 calories worth of Smarties, which was 1/2 the calories of the morning shake that I didn't drink. I just wanted something sweet. I think this whole thing would work better if there was something to look forward to. I think if you do the regular month long program, they do have desserts. I don't want to do the month long thing. I don't think I'd stay sane.
PM SHAKE: OK, I had to do it. I was starving just a couple of hours after lunch. This time I took the Craving Crusher shake and blended it with ice and water. I diluted it too much, so it was just sort of a slightly chocolate flavored ice once I got into it. I didn't drink it all, mainly because it didn't taste like much of anything except the artificial sweetener. I drank about half and couldn't do much more. The shake made me cold. So now I'm cold AND hungry. Bastards.
DINNER: Chili with Beans. There was a three tier reaction to eating the chili. First: taste "Oh, thank goodness, it tastes good!" Second: Chew "Crap, it's got that weird sweet taste." Third: Feel "NOPE. NOPE. NOPE. NOPE." The meat felt wrong and it also had the metallic taste that all food packaged in that kind of container always has. Again, I went with my replacement meal of an egg and veggie bacon. I added toasted spinach and a piece of 100 calorie bread (I realized it was the first bread I'd had all week.) I had to add some almonds at the end of the day, and otherwise I was fine!
This diet sucks. Seriously, unless you literally don't care what your food tastes like, I don't see how anyone could do this long term.
Friday, January 09, 2015
NUTRISYSTEM FAST 5: DAY 5
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! It's faint, but it's there. I have to say, this hasn't been a very fun experiment so far! I never knew how important food was to me in my regular, day to day routine, and I can't help but be a little embarrassed about the whole thing in general. Food, other than making sure I have some, shouldn't be this big of a deal to me! Let this be a lesson! I may not always have all the food I want, so I need to get over it! I could be poor and homeless one day, and it wouldn't do for me to get crazy over what I can or can't eat.
OK, so I did some thinking last night and figured out why I got so light headed and everything. Up until I ate dinner, and because I didn't drink that horrible AM shake or eat very much of my lunch, I'd only had just above 300 calories and almost nothing to drink, so it was a mixture of low blood sugar and some dehydration. Neither of those things are good! I usually keep water with me all day, but yesterday I was working on one of those long, repetitive, mind numbing tasks that I have to do once a year, and I barely even got out of my chair - so I didn't even think of filling up my Wonder Woman water mug. Also, not eating or drinking (no matter how much of it comes from avoiding the food they give you) is not what the Nutrisystem program is about, so that is all on me. I'm sure if I was consuming everything in that box, I wouldn't have any blood sugar issues and I'd probably be way more aware of drinking enough water. At any rate, I'm going to try and do much better today, which should be easier since I don't work on Fridays and will probably be at home all day! [Oh, and full disclosure, I ate 3 cookies last night. I got dizzy again, and figured it wouldn't hurt. It did help, so hooray for cookies!]
BREAKFAST: Peanut Butter Granola Bar. I have to say, the breakfast food has consistently been my favorite of everything they give you. I think that if they marketed their breakfast stuff for general sale at grocery stores, they'd do pretty well. While I'm not a huge fan of peanut flavored stuff in general, this bar was sweet and good and filling. I also had black tea, which the program says is fine as long as you use non-caloric sweetener. Nothing exciting, but it worked for me!
LUNCH: Loaded Baked Potato. This is a misnomer, because what this is, is actually reconstituted instant mashed potatoes with bits of "cheese" and bacon and leeks in it. It tasted weird. I've had something exactly like it before, but I can't remember where. It's familiar, but not in a good way. It's like something I had right before getting sick or something, which is why I've avoided it ever since! It was pasty (even after adding extra water) and bitter, with a touch of fake butter and smoky bacon-bit flavor to it, with an aftertaste of latex balloons. I only ate about half, along with some brussels sprouts (or are they brussel sprouts? One brussel per sprout?) I did find out that it was the perfect consistency to mold things out of, al la "Close Encounters," so if you ever need to build a landmark out of mashed potatoes, this should be your go to stuff! Silver linings!
Honestly, I don't mean to be hateful, but damn. How can you mess up instant potatoes? I wound up making some brussel (brussles?) sprout chips, which are just leaves from the things toasted in olive oil, which were good, so I'm not hungry!
DINNER: Turkey Sausage and Bacon Rigatoni.
I hate everything.
This was, like last night's dinner, inedible. The pasta was mushy and bland, the meat was squidgy and bland, and the sauce is creamy and bland. It was food shaped and slightly food flavored, but not like real food. It's like aliens captured some humans and took them aboard their ship, and when they remembered that the humans needed food, they synthesized this because it was as close to people food as their computer replicators could get. That's the nicest thing I can think of.
Again, I got rid of it and had an egg, veggie bacon, some Veggie Wedgies (HA!), more sprout chips and some of the same cookies I had yesterday. It still clocked in around the same amount of calories. I also found out what happens when you use a mandoline slicer without a finger guard. My thumb might never be the same!
OK, so I did some thinking last night and figured out why I got so light headed and everything. Up until I ate dinner, and because I didn't drink that horrible AM shake or eat very much of my lunch, I'd only had just above 300 calories and almost nothing to drink, so it was a mixture of low blood sugar and some dehydration. Neither of those things are good! I usually keep water with me all day, but yesterday I was working on one of those long, repetitive, mind numbing tasks that I have to do once a year, and I barely even got out of my chair - so I didn't even think of filling up my Wonder Woman water mug. Also, not eating or drinking (no matter how much of it comes from avoiding the food they give you) is not what the Nutrisystem program is about, so that is all on me. I'm sure if I was consuming everything in that box, I wouldn't have any blood sugar issues and I'd probably be way more aware of drinking enough water. At any rate, I'm going to try and do much better today, which should be easier since I don't work on Fridays and will probably be at home all day! [Oh, and full disclosure, I ate 3 cookies last night. I got dizzy again, and figured it wouldn't hurt. It did help, so hooray for cookies!]
BREAKFAST: Peanut Butter Granola Bar. I have to say, the breakfast food has consistently been my favorite of everything they give you. I think that if they marketed their breakfast stuff for general sale at grocery stores, they'd do pretty well. While I'm not a huge fan of peanut flavored stuff in general, this bar was sweet and good and filling. I also had black tea, which the program says is fine as long as you use non-caloric sweetener. Nothing exciting, but it worked for me!
LUNCH: Loaded Baked Potato. This is a misnomer, because what this is, is actually reconstituted instant mashed potatoes with bits of "cheese" and bacon and leeks in it. It tasted weird. I've had something exactly like it before, but I can't remember where. It's familiar, but not in a good way. It's like something I had right before getting sick or something, which is why I've avoided it ever since! It was pasty (even after adding extra water) and bitter, with a touch of fake butter and smoky bacon-bit flavor to it, with an aftertaste of latex balloons. I only ate about half, along with some brussels sprouts (or are they brussel sprouts? One brussel per sprout?) I did find out that it was the perfect consistency to mold things out of, al la "Close Encounters," so if you ever need to build a landmark out of mashed potatoes, this should be your go to stuff! Silver linings!
Honestly, I don't mean to be hateful, but damn. How can you mess up instant potatoes? I wound up making some brussel (brussles?) sprout chips, which are just leaves from the things toasted in olive oil, which were good, so I'm not hungry!
DINNER: Turkey Sausage and Bacon Rigatoni.
I hate everything.
This was, like last night's dinner, inedible. The pasta was mushy and bland, the meat was squidgy and bland, and the sauce is creamy and bland. It was food shaped and slightly food flavored, but not like real food. It's like aliens captured some humans and took them aboard their ship, and when they remembered that the humans needed food, they synthesized this because it was as close to people food as their computer replicators could get. That's the nicest thing I can think of.
Again, I got rid of it and had an egg, veggie bacon, some Veggie Wedgies (HA!), more sprout chips and some of the same cookies I had yesterday. It still clocked in around the same amount of calories. I also found out what happens when you use a mandoline slicer without a finger guard. My thumb might never be the same!
Thursday, January 08, 2015
NUTRISYSTEM FAST 5: DAY 4
I'm beginning to think that this is not a good diet to start just out of the blue.
One of the things that has been hardest for me is that the amount of food you get seems so small, especially if you haven't been dieting at all before hand. To go from eating whatever you want to tiny containers of food you are scheduled to eat is very, very hard. On a good note, though, having someone else pick what you're going to eat makes meal times easy, but not having as much as you want of it is what is hard. If you are thinking of doing this particular program, my recommendation is that you should start cutting back your regular food beforehand and then try this stuff. If nothing else, get used to eating a little less! Also, don't expect that everything will be delicious. Imagine you are in college with just a microwave to cook with and only a convenience store to shop in!
BREAKFAST: Biscotti Bites. These were good, but I don't know if they are what I'd consider a breakfast food. I love biscotti, but it's more of a snack thing for me. These were tasty, though, and there were a lot more in the package than I thought there would be! I also have some pomegranate again today! I'm excited about the pomegranate! I'm saving it for later on this morning. Being exited that I have fruit makes me sad.
LUNCH: White Bean Chicken Chili. I literally couldn't get up enough enthusiasm to eat lunch today. I kept thinking "I'll heat that up soon." But even though I was hungry, I just didn't want to eat it. It probably doesn't taste bad or anything. I don't even want the salad I brought. I'm in "Kill Me" mode. I'll take it home and maybe eat it later. Who knows? Not me. My life now consists of being hungry and getting excited about fruit. I am this close to walking into a McDonald's, jumping on the first person I see, and licking their fingernails just to taste a French fry again.
I hit the drunk/stupid point of low blood sugar while I was shopping at Target with Steve tonight. We had to go get some milk, and I realized that I couldn't focus on anything and was starting to giggle and slur my words. It wasn't severe, and I've felt this way when I've gone a long time without eating, but it hadn't been that long since I had the salad, so I'm not sure if I should be concerned. I straight up almost started to cry because I realized I couldn't have a chicken finger. That is not normal. I know I ate a lot of junk before doing this program, but eating better (or at least less) isn't like coming down from taking drugs is it? Do you go through food withdrawal?
This sucks.
DINNER: Chicken Alfredo. I found something called Veggie Wedgies (the name makes me laugh) which are supposed to be French fry substitutes for children. They are made from cauliflower, but I didn't check to see if they had anything else in them I wasn't supposed to eat. [*EDIT: Potatoes, but only secondary to the cauliflower.] I tried to eat the chicken stuff, I promise I did. Do you know how mad I was the other day when the macaroni didn't taste good? I could at least eat that. This was twenty times worse. I couldn't even get mad about it, it was too depressing. It didn't just taste bad, it tasted wrong. I can't explain it. I kept taking tiny bites hoping I'd change my mind, but I didn't. I got rid of it. I just ate my Veggie Wedgies (hee!) and had an egg and some veggie bacon instead. Calories were probably about equal.
One of the things that has been hardest for me is that the amount of food you get seems so small, especially if you haven't been dieting at all before hand. To go from eating whatever you want to tiny containers of food you are scheduled to eat is very, very hard. On a good note, though, having someone else pick what you're going to eat makes meal times easy, but not having as much as you want of it is what is hard. If you are thinking of doing this particular program, my recommendation is that you should start cutting back your regular food beforehand and then try this stuff. If nothing else, get used to eating a little less! Also, don't expect that everything will be delicious. Imagine you are in college with just a microwave to cook with and only a convenience store to shop in!
Blerf.
*EDIT - I did eventually eat a little bit of this and the salad when I got home. The chili was very spicy (to me, anyway) and it had a weird, metallic, sweet taste. It wasn't terrible, but I don't want to eat it again. I didn't eat it all. I hit the drunk/stupid point of low blood sugar while I was shopping at Target with Steve tonight. We had to go get some milk, and I realized that I couldn't focus on anything and was starting to giggle and slur my words. It wasn't severe, and I've felt this way when I've gone a long time without eating, but it hadn't been that long since I had the salad, so I'm not sure if I should be concerned. I straight up almost started to cry because I realized I couldn't have a chicken finger. That is not normal. I know I ate a lot of junk before doing this program, but eating better (or at least less) isn't like coming down from taking drugs is it? Do you go through food withdrawal?
This sucks.
It looks, and tastes, like someone had already eaten it.
NUTRISYSTEM FAST 5: DAY 3
Last night, I ate the almonds. Not many, but some. Afterwards, I felt less like hurting people. This is my life now. I've done this to myself. There is no one else I can blame.
You probably see a big difference between the way I write about the meals at the beginning of the day and the way I write about them towards the end. I try and write about what I'm eating while I'm eating it (real time, y'all!), so I think that as I get progressively hungrier, by dinner time my sense of humor about everything is gone. I'm one of those people the "I Think You Need a Snickers" commercials are about! I'm a little embarrassed that I had a small come apart on only the second day. I figured that would happen WAY later on in the week. If I make it through the week without going completely off the rails and deviating badly from the program, and I DON'T lose some weight, Imma be mad. I don't expect even the whole 5 pounds at this point, but something, any loss, better happen. I'm doing this whole thing on purpose and I'd hate myself if it didn't work!
Anyway. Even after the almonds, I went to bed hungry and couldn't go to sleep! I know that technically I'm not supposed to get hungry because the shakes are supposed to supplement my meals, but the first one I drank was bad and I've been too scared to try another one. However, I did learn yesterday that there are 2 different kinds of shakes, not just the same shake with two different names, so maybe the evening one isn't as bad? We'll see! I went to bed hungry and couldn't sleep, but once I did fall asleep, I way overslept. I overslept through the alarm that was supposed to wake me up for the gym, and I overslept the one that was supposed to wake me up for work. That probably didn't have anything to do with the food, or lack of it, but still. I was running late, so I didn't have time to make a salad to go along with lunch, but I got some fruit. I hope it doesn't matter. Here's the thing, though: I'm not sure why this diet is supposed to work. Is it strictly portion control with relatively low calories, or is it the kind of food that you are given that can alter your body chemistry? If it's the latter, adding fruit and nuts is probably sabotaging me. If it's the former, I'm hoping I'm keeping it around the same amount of calories, more or less, that I would be getting if I followed this whole thing to the letter.
I've also just now (this very second) realized I've become one of those people who are talking in depth about a diet I'm on and I hate myself a little for it. Normally I wouldn't, but I am justifying it this time because it's a special kind of diet and not just me eating regular food in smaller portions or whatever. Also, I'm doing it for mankind! I tried finding reviews of this diet all over the place, and I only found 2 that were not sponsored. I was looking for someone who'd bought the kit themselves (instead of being sent it from the company) and tried it without feeling obligated to say nice things if it didn't deserve it, and I didn't have much luck. So, I figured I'd do it! Maybe it will be around until Nutrisystem's company finds these entries and then has them scrubbed from the Internet! At least I'm not bragging about cross fit. :)
BREAKFAST: Granola Cereal. This was actually really, really good. I like granola. It wasn't very much, but that's to be expected. I actually forgot to take a picture of it because I snarfed it up before I thought about it. I just wanted to put it in my face as quickly as possible. I also had some more pomegranate arils a couple of hours later.
LUNCH: Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar. I'm not sure if it's because I'm so hungry, or if this was actually good, but I liked this one. Again, I was in such a hurry to eat this that I almost forgot to take a picture, but I remembered mid-bite. It almost tastes like a Butterfinger candy bar, and it is high in protein, so let's see if it will carry me all the way to dinner-time without me ripping anyone's head off! I hope so, because I just realized I forgot to pack the shake I hoped to have in case of emergency hunger. I don't want to be tempted to raid the children's ministry snack stash. I don't want to be that guy.
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P.M. SHAKE: Chocolate Craving Curber (or something like that) I actually found my shake mix! I didn't forget to bring it after all! The children's snacks are safe for another day! I really didn't want to drink this, but I got hungry enough to do it. I mixed it up and, believe it or not, it didn't taste bad. It wasn't great or anything, but if I've learned anything over the past few days, it's that none of this food is going to be great. I really wanted to finish this shake, but I couldn't. It wasn't the taste, it was the texture and the fact that it wasn't cold enough. I think that if I could put this in a blender with some ice and make it into a smoothie kind of thing, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But it wouldn't mix completely, so there were little, floating lumps of powder on top. Also, it was so thick it was like drinking cake batter. I couldn't drink it without my throat closing up, so I poured it out. I replaced it with some saltines I found in the church kitchen for about the same amount of calories. In better conditions, I wouldn't have a hard time drinking it, though.
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DINNER: Chicken Pot Pie. I was dreading this one, because of all the reviews I was able to find online, one of the worst was for this. It didn't look great, but I was starving. I cooked it, heated the little cracker thing and plopped it on top. It was not bad. Maybe I liked it because I had been convinced that it would be terrible, and when it wasn't, I was pleasantly surprised. Again, it wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, so that's good enough. I ate it fast because I was hungry (this is a theme!) and I realized it's actually on par with a lot of heat-and-serve convenience foods that I've had, so I was OK with it. I added some brussel sprouts to this to round it out, but I was still hungry. I had a hard boiled egg and some almonds and I was fine after that. I'm sure those pushed me over whatever calorie limit I had for the day, but I don't care. At least I didn't go to bed so hungry I couldn't sleep.
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You probably see a big difference between the way I write about the meals at the beginning of the day and the way I write about them towards the end. I try and write about what I'm eating while I'm eating it (real time, y'all!), so I think that as I get progressively hungrier, by dinner time my sense of humor about everything is gone. I'm one of those people the "I Think You Need a Snickers" commercials are about! I'm a little embarrassed that I had a small come apart on only the second day. I figured that would happen WAY later on in the week. If I make it through the week without going completely off the rails and deviating badly from the program, and I DON'T lose some weight, Imma be mad. I don't expect even the whole 5 pounds at this point, but something, any loss, better happen. I'm doing this whole thing on purpose and I'd hate myself if it didn't work!
Anyway. Even after the almonds, I went to bed hungry and couldn't go to sleep! I know that technically I'm not supposed to get hungry because the shakes are supposed to supplement my meals, but the first one I drank was bad and I've been too scared to try another one. However, I did learn yesterday that there are 2 different kinds of shakes, not just the same shake with two different names, so maybe the evening one isn't as bad? We'll see! I went to bed hungry and couldn't sleep, but once I did fall asleep, I way overslept. I overslept through the alarm that was supposed to wake me up for the gym, and I overslept the one that was supposed to wake me up for work. That probably didn't have anything to do with the food, or lack of it, but still. I was running late, so I didn't have time to make a salad to go along with lunch, but I got some fruit. I hope it doesn't matter. Here's the thing, though: I'm not sure why this diet is supposed to work. Is it strictly portion control with relatively low calories, or is it the kind of food that you are given that can alter your body chemistry? If it's the latter, adding fruit and nuts is probably sabotaging me. If it's the former, I'm hoping I'm keeping it around the same amount of calories, more or less, that I would be getting if I followed this whole thing to the letter.
I've also just now (this very second) realized I've become one of those people who are talking in depth about a diet I'm on and I hate myself a little for it. Normally I wouldn't, but I am justifying it this time because it's a special kind of diet and not just me eating regular food in smaller portions or whatever. Also, I'm doing it for mankind! I tried finding reviews of this diet all over the place, and I only found 2 that were not sponsored. I was looking for someone who'd bought the kit themselves (instead of being sent it from the company) and tried it without feeling obligated to say nice things if it didn't deserve it, and I didn't have much luck. So, I figured I'd do it! Maybe it will be around until Nutrisystem's company finds these entries and then has them scrubbed from the Internet! At least I'm not bragging about cross fit. :)
This was what was left when I remembered to take the picture.
DINNER: Chicken Pot Pie. I was dreading this one, because of all the reviews I was able to find online, one of the worst was for this. It didn't look great, but I was starving. I cooked it, heated the little cracker thing and plopped it on top. It was not bad. Maybe I liked it because I had been convinced that it would be terrible, and when it wasn't, I was pleasantly surprised. Again, it wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, so that's good enough. I ate it fast because I was hungry (this is a theme!) and I realized it's actually on par with a lot of heat-and-serve convenience foods that I've had, so I was OK with it. I added some brussel sprouts to this to round it out, but I was still hungry. I had a hard boiled egg and some almonds and I was fine after that. I'm sure those pushed me over whatever calorie limit I had for the day, but I don't care. At least I didn't go to bed so hungry I couldn't sleep.
Tuesday, January 06, 2015
NUTRISYSTEM FAST 5: DAY 2
I woke up this morning strangely light headed and tingly. I'm not going to blame the Nutrisystem food for that. I'm probably just getting the DTs from the fact that I'm no longer on the hydrocodone cough medicine I was given before Christmas. I was hungry, though, which I do blame on the food, but technically, you probably should be hungry after sleeping a while. I'm guessing this is how normal people feel?
BREAKFAST: Lemon Blueberry Bar. The first bite was gross. I think I was expecting it to be gross, so in my head, it was gross. However once I considered it for a moment, I realized it actually wasn't gross at all. I'd totally eat one of these again. It was small, as you can see, and it didn't necessarily fill me up, but it was enough for breakfast. I couldn't bear to drink another "Energi-Zing" shake (I seriously couldn't get the taste out of my mouth until I brushed my teeth) so I had some pomegranate arils, which ended up being about half the calories of the shake anyway.
LUNCH: Chicken Noodle Soup. This wasn't bad either, although it wouldn't be something I'd reach for again if I had other choices. It didn't taste bad, per se, but it felt wrong. The noodles were rough and heavy and it was a little bland. I was scared at first, because after I heated it, but before I tasted it, I stirred it and the noodles all clumped together in the shape of the container. Horrors!!!!!! It wasn't so bad. I had a tiny spinach/carrot/feta salad (yes with dressing, shut up!) along with it and it was fine. Fine. It was fine.
DINNER: Macaroni and Cheese with Beef. I was starving by the time I came home. I'd been busy at work, so even if I had wanted to drink that wretched shake, I hadn't had time. I immediately went into dinner preparation mode. I made some balsamic-parmesan cauliflower (which was recommended to me by the nutritionist I no longer visit...so who knows if it was ok to eat with this, but still - vegetable) and had to wait about half an hour while that cooked. I could have eaten my own arm, but I did manage not to grab the big box of goldfish crackers, stick my face directly into it and inhale them without chewing. Even though I'm not restricting carbs, that's the thing I'm craving most when I'm hungry now. I just want crackers and chips and bread. The macaroni and beef stuff was an "add water and wait" kind of thing, so I managed to have everything ready at the same time instead of eating in stages.
The cauliflower tasted good, no matter how bad it smelled while it was roasting. The macaroni was fine. Actually, no, it was not fine. It was the bastard stepchild of Hamburger Helper and depression. It tasted like sadness with fake cheese sauce. Maybe I made it wrong, I don't know, but I was so hungry, I ate it all regardless of what it tasted like. I mean, it was edible, and there are probably starving people in this very country who'd gladly have it three times a day, but food shouldn't taste like that. Not on purpose. Maybe it's my hunger talking, because even after dinner, I am still hungry. I have a suspicion that I'm actually what people refer to as "Hangry" right now, because when I think of that macaroni, I want to set my house on fire and barbecue something over its smouldering ashes. I want to find the food scientist who thought it up and make them cry. I want to go into my kitchen and eat an entire loaf of bread, crouched in a corner Gollum style, while growling at anyone who gets near me. Maybe I'm a compulsive eater or something, I don't know. All I can think about is the food I can't have, and that's not normal for a person who has plenty to eat at all times. Too much food at all times, even. Is it cliche for a chubby person to be obsessing over food. Of course it is. I don't even care. I'm mad at myself for needing to lose weight in the first place, and I'm mad that I saw this stupid box at Sam's, and I'm mad at myself for not having the willpower to simply not care about what I'm eating. I wish I was like those weirdos that only eat so that they don't die, because that would be better than this obsession with regular food I suddenly have. I was fine all day, but this macaroni just made me mad!
I also ate a sugar free mint and 4 almonds. I might eat a few more. I don't want to, but I'm not sure I can help myself.
BREAKFAST: Lemon Blueberry Bar. The first bite was gross. I think I was expecting it to be gross, so in my head, it was gross. However once I considered it for a moment, I realized it actually wasn't gross at all. I'd totally eat one of these again. It was small, as you can see, and it didn't necessarily fill me up, but it was enough for breakfast. I couldn't bear to drink another "Energi-Zing" shake (I seriously couldn't get the taste out of my mouth until I brushed my teeth) so I had some pomegranate arils, which ended up being about half the calories of the shake anyway.
LUNCH: Chicken Noodle Soup. This wasn't bad either, although it wouldn't be something I'd reach for again if I had other choices. It didn't taste bad, per se, but it felt wrong. The noodles were rough and heavy and it was a little bland. I was scared at first, because after I heated it, but before I tasted it, I stirred it and the noodles all clumped together in the shape of the container. Horrors!!!!!! It wasn't so bad. I had a tiny spinach/carrot/feta salad (yes with dressing, shut up!) along with it and it was fine. Fine. It was fine.
DINNER: Macaroni and Cheese with Beef. I was starving by the time I came home. I'd been busy at work, so even if I had wanted to drink that wretched shake, I hadn't had time. I immediately went into dinner preparation mode. I made some balsamic-parmesan cauliflower (which was recommended to me by the nutritionist I no longer visit...so who knows if it was ok to eat with this, but still - vegetable) and had to wait about half an hour while that cooked. I could have eaten my own arm, but I did manage not to grab the big box of goldfish crackers, stick my face directly into it and inhale them without chewing. Even though I'm not restricting carbs, that's the thing I'm craving most when I'm hungry now. I just want crackers and chips and bread. The macaroni and beef stuff was an "add water and wait" kind of thing, so I managed to have everything ready at the same time instead of eating in stages.
I tried putting it in a pretty dish, but it didn't help.
The cauliflower tasted good, no matter how bad it smelled while it was roasting. The macaroni was fine. Actually, no, it was not fine. It was the bastard stepchild of Hamburger Helper and depression. It tasted like sadness with fake cheese sauce. Maybe I made it wrong, I don't know, but I was so hungry, I ate it all regardless of what it tasted like. I mean, it was edible, and there are probably starving people in this very country who'd gladly have it three times a day, but food shouldn't taste like that. Not on purpose. Maybe it's my hunger talking, because even after dinner, I am still hungry. I have a suspicion that I'm actually what people refer to as "Hangry" right now, because when I think of that macaroni, I want to set my house on fire and barbecue something over its smouldering ashes. I want to find the food scientist who thought it up and make them cry. I want to go into my kitchen and eat an entire loaf of bread, crouched in a corner Gollum style, while growling at anyone who gets near me. Maybe I'm a compulsive eater or something, I don't know. All I can think about is the food I can't have, and that's not normal for a person who has plenty to eat at all times. Too much food at all times, even. Is it cliche for a chubby person to be obsessing over food. Of course it is. I don't even care. I'm mad at myself for needing to lose weight in the first place, and I'm mad that I saw this stupid box at Sam's, and I'm mad at myself for not having the willpower to simply not care about what I'm eating. I wish I was like those weirdos that only eat so that they don't die, because that would be better than this obsession with regular food I suddenly have. I was fine all day, but this macaroni just made me mad!
I also ate a sugar free mint and 4 almonds. I might eat a few more. I don't want to, but I'm not sure I can help myself.
Monday, January 05, 2015
NUTRISYSTEM FAST 5: DAY 1
A NOTE: I don't generally make new year's resolutions or anything, because I've learned that I'm not good at them. Like...not at all. People tend to plan on reinventing themselves every year, and 9 times out of 10, it never works out. I learned this about myself a long time ago, and I only mention it now so that you don't think that what I'm about to tell you falls within the "New Year, New Me" category! It's just convenient timing. That is all.
Late last year (which was only a couple of weeks ago, as of this writing) Steve had a doctor's appointment wherein he learned that if he were to drop some weight, he would ultimately be able to stop taking some of his prescribed medications. That would be pretty great, considering that he is temporarily unemployed and we will not have health insurance for much longer! For myself, I've gained back around 10 of the pounds I fought so hard to lose a couple of years ago. I won't lie, it's because I'm lazy and I like bacon cheeseburgers and french fries. I like them a lot. Gaining that weight back makes me feel bad, because I worked really hard to lose it and it's personally frustrating that I just gave up on all of it. Also, I gave away all of my fat clothes and don't want to buy bigger pants, so I knew I'd have to do something soon!
When he told me about wanting to lose weight, I offered to try and help him out by trying to lose weight at the same time. It would be good for both of us AND it makes it easier when one of us is NOT eating delicious stuff while the other is eating salad. That would mean that I'd have to work out with him, we'd try and figure out how to cook better stuff, and maybe not eat out as much as we do (the source of our bacon cheeseburger problem!) We decided to start whatever we were going to do at the beginning of the year because we had Christmas food to eat and would be going on vacation to eat delicious seafood, and we didn't want to miss out on that. So, when we found this at Sam's:
I'm getting tired of this rug, y'all.
we thought it would be a great way to get started on the whole thing. It had the added bonus of having almost everything included that we would need inside the box, you do have to buy vegetables, so there wouldn't be any days where either of us could use the excuse of "I don't feel like cooking. Let's go out to eat." We both agreed to try it and if it worked, great! Even losing 5 pounds is encouraging and this looked like the easiest thing to do to get started. If it works, hopefully it would encourage us to lose more weight on our own.
I was 100% gung-ho on this until I actually opened the box last night. My problem: I'm not sure I can do this. I have zero willpower and I really like food. Also, I tried Nutrisystem in 2007 and it didn't work because, to be honest, the food is not that good. Well, most of it wasn't good. There were a few things I actually liked, but once those things were gone I couldn't bring myself to eat the other stuff. I thought that doing this for 7 days would be easy enough, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it. So I'm going to write about doing it for as long as I keep up with it for two reasons: 1) If I tell you about it, I'm going to be accountable and 2) writing about it makes it seem more official! So, join me as I (try to) eat a week's worth of shelf stable foods in an attempt to lose 5 pounds!
The box contains 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 7 dinners and 14 shakes that are supposed to energizing or are supposed to curb cravings. We'll see!
BREAKFAST: Day one (if you follow the little guide book) is oatmeal. I almost screwed this up, because I didn't read closely enough and thought it was cereal and almost ate it raw. I had to scrounge a microwave safe bowl at work to cook it. It actually wasn't that bad, which is encouraging. It also filled me up, so when it was time for the next thing, I wasn't terribly hungry.
SHAKE 1: Hungry or not, I wasn't going to deviate from the program so soon. The shake is chocolate-ish flavored, and you mix it with 8 oz of water. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it looked like a Slim Fast shake, or watery chocolate milk. We were supposed to eat some vegetables with this as a snack, but gross. No thanks. The shake was...not good. It wasn't terrible, but it had a very strong, bitter, artificial sweetener taste to it. It was also a little gritty, but I pounded it down as quick as I could. Blerf. The artificial taste will not leave my mouth, even though I've been drinking water. I'm pretty sure it also had caffeine in it, which makes me feel like my blood pressure has gone up instead of really being "Energy-Zing!" I don't know if it really curbed any cravings, or if not being terribly hungry before I drank it kept me from being too hungry. I didn't like this thing, but I have 2 of these a day all week. Lord, give me strength.
LUNCH: Lunch consisted of a "Fudge Graham Bar" and some grapes. The bar wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either. I used to eat a Special K protein bar for lunch a lot, which this reminded me of, but it had more calories and didn't taste as good. Oh, well. It filled me up, at least. Technically, I'm supposed to be eating vegetables with this, but I couldn't make myself eat this bar with a vegetable. Unless the whole thing hinges on glucose levels or something, I can't imagine 35 calories worth of grapes could make much of a difference. I'll eat vegetables with dinner. Promise!
When I got home, I was feeling sick and head achy, but I don't know if that has anything to do with the food. I was also hungry, but I didn't want to try the craving curbing shake, because I could still taste the fake sweetener from the shake I had this morning. I decided to eat dinner a little earlier to see if I'd feel better.
DINNER: Lasagna with Meat sauce. Well, sort of. It wasn't bad at all, although it was mushy, a little bland and tasted a bit like Lean Cuisine. It had corn and possibly some beans in it, which was confusing because I've never had lasagna with corn in it! Eating really did make me feel better, so maybe I'm just not used to eating so little, or maybe it's all in my head! I have no idea. I ate a bag of steamed edamame afterwards which also helped. I'm not sure if that's a vegetable or a starch, but since it was something that came from a plant, I have decided that it took care of the 4 servings of vegetables I was supposed to eat today. One day down, six to go.
I really want some Goldfish crackers. I want them in a bad way.
Late last year (which was only a couple of weeks ago, as of this writing) Steve had a doctor's appointment wherein he learned that if he were to drop some weight, he would ultimately be able to stop taking some of his prescribed medications. That would be pretty great, considering that he is temporarily unemployed and we will not have health insurance for much longer! For myself, I've gained back around 10 of the pounds I fought so hard to lose a couple of years ago. I won't lie, it's because I'm lazy and I like bacon cheeseburgers and french fries. I like them a lot. Gaining that weight back makes me feel bad, because I worked really hard to lose it and it's personally frustrating that I just gave up on all of it. Also, I gave away all of my fat clothes and don't want to buy bigger pants, so I knew I'd have to do something soon!
When he told me about wanting to lose weight, I offered to try and help him out by trying to lose weight at the same time. It would be good for both of us AND it makes it easier when one of us is NOT eating delicious stuff while the other is eating salad. That would mean that I'd have to work out with him, we'd try and figure out how to cook better stuff, and maybe not eat out as much as we do (the source of our bacon cheeseburger problem!) We decided to start whatever we were going to do at the beginning of the year because we had Christmas food to eat and would be going on vacation to eat delicious seafood, and we didn't want to miss out on that. So, when we found this at Sam's:
I'm getting tired of this rug, y'all.
we thought it would be a great way to get started on the whole thing. It had the added bonus of having almost everything included that we would need inside the box, you do have to buy vegetables, so there wouldn't be any days where either of us could use the excuse of "I don't feel like cooking. Let's go out to eat." We both agreed to try it and if it worked, great! Even losing 5 pounds is encouraging and this looked like the easiest thing to do to get started. If it works, hopefully it would encourage us to lose more weight on our own.
I was 100% gung-ho on this until I actually opened the box last night. My problem: I'm not sure I can do this. I have zero willpower and I really like food. Also, I tried Nutrisystem in 2007 and it didn't work because, to be honest, the food is not that good. Well, most of it wasn't good. There were a few things I actually liked, but once those things were gone I couldn't bring myself to eat the other stuff. I thought that doing this for 7 days would be easy enough, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it. So I'm going to write about doing it for as long as I keep up with it for two reasons: 1) If I tell you about it, I'm going to be accountable and 2) writing about it makes it seem more official! So, join me as I (try to) eat a week's worth of shelf stable foods in an attempt to lose 5 pounds!
The box contains 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 7 dinners and 14 shakes that are supposed to energizing or are supposed to curb cravings. We'll see!
BREAKFAST: Day one (if you follow the little guide book) is oatmeal. I almost screwed this up, because I didn't read closely enough and thought it was cereal and almost ate it raw. I had to scrounge a microwave safe bowl at work to cook it. It actually wasn't that bad, which is encouraging. It also filled me up, so when it was time for the next thing, I wasn't terribly hungry.
Oatmeal doesn't photograph very well, does it?
SHAKE 1: Hungry or not, I wasn't going to deviate from the program so soon. The shake is chocolate-ish flavored, and you mix it with 8 oz of water. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it looked like a Slim Fast shake, or watery chocolate milk. We were supposed to eat some vegetables with this as a snack, but gross. No thanks. The shake was...not good. It wasn't terrible, but it had a very strong, bitter, artificial sweetener taste to it. It was also a little gritty, but I pounded it down as quick as I could. Blerf. The artificial taste will not leave my mouth, even though I've been drinking water. I'm pretty sure it also had caffeine in it, which makes me feel like my blood pressure has gone up instead of really being "Energy-Zing!" I don't know if it really curbed any cravings, or if not being terribly hungry before I drank it kept me from being too hungry. I didn't like this thing, but I have 2 of these a day all week. Lord, give me strength.
LUNCH: Lunch consisted of a "Fudge Graham Bar" and some grapes. The bar wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either. I used to eat a Special K protein bar for lunch a lot, which this reminded me of, but it had more calories and didn't taste as good. Oh, well. It filled me up, at least. Technically, I'm supposed to be eating vegetables with this, but I couldn't make myself eat this bar with a vegetable. Unless the whole thing hinges on glucose levels or something, I can't imagine 35 calories worth of grapes could make much of a difference. I'll eat vegetables with dinner. Promise!
When I got home, I was feeling sick and head achy, but I don't know if that has anything to do with the food. I was also hungry, but I didn't want to try the craving curbing shake, because I could still taste the fake sweetener from the shake I had this morning. I decided to eat dinner a little earlier to see if I'd feel better.
DINNER: Lasagna with Meat sauce. Well, sort of. It wasn't bad at all, although it was mushy, a little bland and tasted a bit like Lean Cuisine. It had corn and possibly some beans in it, which was confusing because I've never had lasagna with corn in it! Eating really did make me feel better, so maybe I'm just not used to eating so little, or maybe it's all in my head! I have no idea. I ate a bag of steamed edamame afterwards which also helped. I'm not sure if that's a vegetable or a starch, but since it was something that came from a plant, I have decided that it took care of the 4 servings of vegetables I was supposed to eat today. One day down, six to go.
It's lasagna, I swear!
I really want some Goldfish crackers. I want them in a bad way.
Saturday, January 03, 2015
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: NEW YEAR AT THE BEACH
January 1, 2015
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Again!
I was right, we didn't make it to midnight, but almost. I think I fell asleep reading at 11:45. I'm such a party animal! :)
We were going to be going home today. It was a really, really short trip, and I am disappointed that we couldn't stay longer, but at least I got out of the house for a little bit. Sometimes you can't ask for more than that, right?
I woke up this morning and went out to the beach. This time I knew what the weather was going to be like, so I had my coat, my hat, and I was wearing my high boots. Granted, I wouldn't recommend wearing your good boots to the beach normally, but I was already dressed and refused to change my shoes. Besides, weirdly enough, it was easier to walk on the sand in those boots than it was to walk in my sneakers! I left Steve to pack up and walked up and down the beach for about an hour and a half! Luckily, no weird thoughts about how easy it would be to drown myself on purpose popped up this time, so I enjoyed myself a lot more, even though it was freaking cold out there! Again, I picked up shells and walked as far as I dared to, and I totally enjoyed myself in the process. While getting ready, I accidentally scratched my eye while messing with my contacts, and the wind coming off of the gulf was making that eye water like crazy, so I'm sure there were a lot of people wondering why the sad lady with the funny hat was crying, but it was just the wind, I promise!
Once I got back inside, I got my things together and we checked out of the hotel. We drove back to The Wharf so that I could buy something that I'd seen the day before and forgotten to get, and then we headed over to the Foley outlet mall to look around. I'm truly beginning to wonder if outlets are really worth going to. The prices don't really seem much different than buying the stuff online, and I think some things are even more expensive than buying them in regular stores! We found a couple of things, and then headed to our last stop: World Market. It's probably a good thing we don't have one of these in Huntsville, because I always kind of go crazy in there. We always stop by one while we're out of town, just for the international candy! I should be set for Japanese gummis for a while!
After that, we made our way back home. It was very dreary and rainy, but be it ever so humble and all that!
It was short, but it was fun! Can't wait to do another one sometime!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Again!
I was right, we didn't make it to midnight, but almost. I think I fell asleep reading at 11:45. I'm such a party animal! :)
We were going to be going home today. It was a really, really short trip, and I am disappointed that we couldn't stay longer, but at least I got out of the house for a little bit. Sometimes you can't ask for more than that, right?
I woke up this morning and went out to the beach. This time I knew what the weather was going to be like, so I had my coat, my hat, and I was wearing my high boots. Granted, I wouldn't recommend wearing your good boots to the beach normally, but I was already dressed and refused to change my shoes. Besides, weirdly enough, it was easier to walk on the sand in those boots than it was to walk in my sneakers! I left Steve to pack up and walked up and down the beach for about an hour and a half! Luckily, no weird thoughts about how easy it would be to drown myself on purpose popped up this time, so I enjoyed myself a lot more, even though it was freaking cold out there! Again, I picked up shells and walked as far as I dared to, and I totally enjoyed myself in the process. While getting ready, I accidentally scratched my eye while messing with my contacts, and the wind coming off of the gulf was making that eye water like crazy, so I'm sure there were a lot of people wondering why the sad lady with the funny hat was crying, but it was just the wind, I promise!
Once I got back inside, I got my things together and we checked out of the hotel. We drove back to The Wharf so that I could buy something that I'd seen the day before and forgotten to get, and then we headed over to the Foley outlet mall to look around. I'm truly beginning to wonder if outlets are really worth going to. The prices don't really seem much different than buying the stuff online, and I think some things are even more expensive than buying them in regular stores! We found a couple of things, and then headed to our last stop: World Market. It's probably a good thing we don't have one of these in Huntsville, because I always kind of go crazy in there. We always stop by one while we're out of town, just for the international candy! I should be set for Japanese gummis for a while!
After that, we made our way back home. It was very dreary and rainy, but be it ever so humble and all that!
It was short, but it was fun! Can't wait to do another one sometime!
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: NEW YEAR AT THE BEACH
December 31, 2014
I woke up as early as I could today so that I could go outside to the beach. I wanted to watch the sun come up, but my body said NOPE. The sun was well up by the time I got out there, but at least Steve came with me this time! I wanted a picture of us together out there, but no one else was around, so I had to break my selfie rule and take it myself. OK, well, it's more of a guideline, but still...
The picture turned out cute. Shut up.
Anyways, we walked around out there and I picked up sea shells. That is my favorite thing to do! I know I look like a hobo scrounging around on the ground, but I don't care. I filled up the pocket of my fleece with sand and the discarded husks of dead sea creatures, which means I'll never get the sand out of that jacket. Heehee! I did learn something new while we were out there, though. Steve doesn't like walking on the beach. Like, at all. He says that he likes sitting out there and dozing when it's warm, but walking around picking up shells bores him silly. So no romantic walks on the beach for us, I guess! It's such a shame. Oh, well, my next husband will like it, I'll make sure of it! It'll be one of the requirements. :) Also, it was FREEZING out there. My ear-tips felt like they would snap off if I bumped them on something, so we left and I decided that I'd come back in the afternoon when it was warmer.
Today would be our only full day here, so we were going to drive around and find things to do. We had breakfast at Hazel's, which was delicious and plentiful. Can't beat a buffet, right? After that, we went to souvenir shops, which was actually a lot of fun. Not all of them are Alvin's Island like, although a lot of them sell the same kinds of stuff. We found a place called Souvenir City, which had been open since 1956 and you have to walk through a giant shark's mouth to get it. It's pretty much the most awesome souvenir shop ever. The place is HUGE. I have no idea how long we spent in there, but there were so many things to look at! One thing I was looking for specifically was a hat I could wear on the beach, because dummy me didn't think to bring one. I own a million hats, custom crocheted by yours truly, and I was going to have to buy one. Oy. I couldn't find one I wanted because I didn't want anything with words on it, or anything that looked like a maw-maw hat, I just wanted a stocking cap that would cover my ears! No dice, though. I wound up buying some sea shells (non-native ones, which I wouldn't be able to find on the beach) and a Christmas tree ornament that I will hang in my mermaid bathroom. Across the street was a surf/skate store called Blonde Johns. That was not exactly our element, but Steve was trying to find a sticker for a surf company like one he used to have on his truck (or maybe the Mustang, I have no idea) and that seemed like the most likely place to have it. We were greeted by a skater-dude in full on skater-boi regalia, which was about as anti beach as you can get. He and the other skater dude guy who worked there were very nice and helpful, though. They told us about all the New Year stuff that would be going on in town. I felt like a fraud walking around in there because A) I can't skate, surf or skim (whatever that is) and B) I couldn't pull off any of the clothes they sold, BUT I did find a bright blue toboggan in there that didn't have words on it, so I got that to cover my ear-tips on the beach! Now I've got a cool skater hat! Yay! Steve, however, didn't find his sticker. Boo. We went to a lot of different places and it was really fun! There were several places with art from local artists, which I'd have loved to buy, but the stuff I liked was way too expensive. The stuff I could afford wasn't to my taste. We also have come to the conclusion that unless you have a giant house, or a lake or beach house, most of the stuff you can buy down there really isn't suitable for real houses. If you have a big house, some of that stuff would blend in, but in our house, a giant chandelier made of seashells really would clash. You know? We decided to eat lunch at a place called Lulu's, which had come highly recommended, but when we got there, there were so many people we wouldn't have gotten to eat for a couple of hours. Seriously, they wouldn't even give us a wait time. They said there were about 50 parties ahead of us, though, so we left and had lunch at Tacky Jack's! We got something called Mexican Garbage, which was a giant plate of nacho's served on a garbage can lid. Nom.
The weather got really nice and a bit warmer, so we went back to the hotel and I got my hat and coat and headed back out to the beach while Steve took a nap. Once I was out there, though, I realized it was too warm for either my hat or my coat. Of course. So I just tied everything around my waist and set off walking and picking up shells. On that walk, I decided that several of my life goals involve living at the beach. Also, I'm going to have to become independently wealthy so that one day I can drive down to the pointy bit of Texas and just start following the coast all the way around the Gulf of Mexico, go around Florida and up to New England, stopping at different coastal towns and seeing what they're all like. Sounds like a Travel Channel show. Oh, hey, I could totally host that! If anyone from the Travel Channel reads this and wants to make that happen...I'm game!
I don't know how long I stayed out there, but I got a sunburn I wasn't expecting. I also really only went back to the room because at some point, while pondering the meaning of life and such, I realized how easy it would be to drown yourself. I mean, I'm not suicidal or anything, I swear, but that's where my mind went and it got stuck there. I don't need that kind of negativity going on in my head while I'm at the beach, so I went back in. Steve was awake by then and we decided to go back out. We were going to The Wharf with the intention of staying until midnight to watch them drop the marlin. We stayed there for a while, but realized we probably wouldn't have enough to keep us occupied while we waited for midnight, so we left. It was getting cold outside again, and we were both tired, so (because we are old now) decided to go to Wal-Mart and pick up some snacks, and just ring in the New Year from our hotel. I really didn't mind, although it would have been nice to see some fireworks, but I kind of like spending my new year's eve somewhere quiet, so it was a good idea! On an embarrassing note, guess who forgot that people in the pool and hot tub can see straight into our room when we don't close the black-out curtain? Also guess who gave them all a great view of me in my underwear as I changed for bed? To everyone who saw me, I'd like to apologize for that! We are watching movies, and I've been reading, and I seriously doubt that we are going to stay awake till midnight! Happy New Year! :)
I woke up as early as I could today so that I could go outside to the beach. I wanted to watch the sun come up, but my body said NOPE. The sun was well up by the time I got out there, but at least Steve came with me this time! I wanted a picture of us together out there, but no one else was around, so I had to break my selfie rule and take it myself. OK, well, it's more of a guideline, but still...
The picture turned out cute. Shut up.
Anyways, we walked around out there and I picked up sea shells. That is my favorite thing to do! I know I look like a hobo scrounging around on the ground, but I don't care. I filled up the pocket of my fleece with sand and the discarded husks of dead sea creatures, which means I'll never get the sand out of that jacket. Heehee! I did learn something new while we were out there, though. Steve doesn't like walking on the beach. Like, at all. He says that he likes sitting out there and dozing when it's warm, but walking around picking up shells bores him silly. So no romantic walks on the beach for us, I guess! It's such a shame. Oh, well, my next husband will like it, I'll make sure of it! It'll be one of the requirements. :) Also, it was FREEZING out there. My ear-tips felt like they would snap off if I bumped them on something, so we left and I decided that I'd come back in the afternoon when it was warmer.
Today would be our only full day here, so we were going to drive around and find things to do. We had breakfast at Hazel's, which was delicious and plentiful. Can't beat a buffet, right? After that, we went to souvenir shops, which was actually a lot of fun. Not all of them are Alvin's Island like, although a lot of them sell the same kinds of stuff. We found a place called Souvenir City, which had been open since 1956 and you have to walk through a giant shark's mouth to get it. It's pretty much the most awesome souvenir shop ever. The place is HUGE. I have no idea how long we spent in there, but there were so many things to look at! One thing I was looking for specifically was a hat I could wear on the beach, because dummy me didn't think to bring one. I own a million hats, custom crocheted by yours truly, and I was going to have to buy one. Oy. I couldn't find one I wanted because I didn't want anything with words on it, or anything that looked like a maw-maw hat, I just wanted a stocking cap that would cover my ears! No dice, though. I wound up buying some sea shells (non-native ones, which I wouldn't be able to find on the beach) and a Christmas tree ornament that I will hang in my mermaid bathroom. Across the street was a surf/skate store called Blonde Johns. That was not exactly our element, but Steve was trying to find a sticker for a surf company like one he used to have on his truck (or maybe the Mustang, I have no idea) and that seemed like the most likely place to have it. We were greeted by a skater-dude in full on skater-boi regalia, which was about as anti beach as you can get. He and the other skater dude guy who worked there were very nice and helpful, though. They told us about all the New Year stuff that would be going on in town. I felt like a fraud walking around in there because A) I can't skate, surf or skim (whatever that is) and B) I couldn't pull off any of the clothes they sold, BUT I did find a bright blue toboggan in there that didn't have words on it, so I got that to cover my ear-tips on the beach! Now I've got a cool skater hat! Yay! Steve, however, didn't find his sticker. Boo. We went to a lot of different places and it was really fun! There were several places with art from local artists, which I'd have loved to buy, but the stuff I liked was way too expensive. The stuff I could afford wasn't to my taste. We also have come to the conclusion that unless you have a giant house, or a lake or beach house, most of the stuff you can buy down there really isn't suitable for real houses. If you have a big house, some of that stuff would blend in, but in our house, a giant chandelier made of seashells really would clash. You know? We decided to eat lunch at a place called Lulu's, which had come highly recommended, but when we got there, there were so many people we wouldn't have gotten to eat for a couple of hours. Seriously, they wouldn't even give us a wait time. They said there were about 50 parties ahead of us, though, so we left and had lunch at Tacky Jack's! We got something called Mexican Garbage, which was a giant plate of nacho's served on a garbage can lid. Nom.
The weather got really nice and a bit warmer, so we went back to the hotel and I got my hat and coat and headed back out to the beach while Steve took a nap. Once I was out there, though, I realized it was too warm for either my hat or my coat. Of course. So I just tied everything around my waist and set off walking and picking up shells. On that walk, I decided that several of my life goals involve living at the beach. Also, I'm going to have to become independently wealthy so that one day I can drive down to the pointy bit of Texas and just start following the coast all the way around the Gulf of Mexico, go around Florida and up to New England, stopping at different coastal towns and seeing what they're all like. Sounds like a Travel Channel show. Oh, hey, I could totally host that! If anyone from the Travel Channel reads this and wants to make that happen...I'm game!
I don't know how long I stayed out there, but I got a sunburn I wasn't expecting. I also really only went back to the room because at some point, while pondering the meaning of life and such, I realized how easy it would be to drown yourself. I mean, I'm not suicidal or anything, I swear, but that's where my mind went and it got stuck there. I don't need that kind of negativity going on in my head while I'm at the beach, so I went back in. Steve was awake by then and we decided to go back out. We were going to The Wharf with the intention of staying until midnight to watch them drop the marlin. We stayed there for a while, but realized we probably wouldn't have enough to keep us occupied while we waited for midnight, so we left. It was getting cold outside again, and we were both tired, so (because we are old now) decided to go to Wal-Mart and pick up some snacks, and just ring in the New Year from our hotel. I really didn't mind, although it would have been nice to see some fireworks, but I kind of like spending my new year's eve somewhere quiet, so it was a good idea! On an embarrassing note, guess who forgot that people in the pool and hot tub can see straight into our room when we don't close the black-out curtain? Also guess who gave them all a great view of me in my underwear as I changed for bed? To everyone who saw me, I'd like to apologize for that! We are watching movies, and I've been reading, and I seriously doubt that we are going to stay awake till midnight! Happy New Year! :)
Friday, January 02, 2015
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: NEW YEAR AT THE BEACH
December 30, 2014
Today we are celebrating the fact that Steve is officially no longer working and heading off on a beach adventure! Well, celebrating is probably not the right word. Taking advantage of the fact, might be a better way of putting it. Basically, I asked if we could take a quick trip somewhere and he picked Orange Beach, Alabama out of a list of places I'd mentioned I'd like to go! We are using a bunch of the points that he'd amassed from his business travels (not sure how that works, but it's paying for our hotel) and celebrating the new year at the beach!
We left a lot later than we planned because he had to go by his former workplace to fill out some paperwork. Apparently they were very much not on the ball because they didn't have whatever it was he was supposed to sign, but they told him they'd email it to him, so we finally got on the road. It wasn't a very eventful drive down, but we both like taking road trips, so it wasn't that bad. It's pretty much a straight shot down the state until you make one turn and then continue south again!
Our first stop was Lambert's Cafe, Home of the Throwed Rolls! No, seriously, that's what it's called. Most people around here might be familiar with the place, but in case you aren't, this is a huge restaurant where they will throw rolls at you. Not randomly, or anything like that. They don't just peg you in the head with a roll while you aren't paying attention. Just periodically throughout your meal some dude comes out of the kitchen with a wheeled cart and yells "HOT ROLLS!" and if you want one, they throw one your way. Yes, it's weird, but the food is good! The servers also circulate around the restaurant with big pots of side dishes that you can get some of if you want. It's kind of like eating at a grandma's house where people are constantly trying to give you more and more food, even if you've got a full plate, only no one gets in trouble for throwing bread! I had eaten at one of these places before when I was on an FFA trip in high school, but I didn't remember the roll guys throwing nearly as hard as our roll guy did. When he got around to us, he sent a fast pitch at me, and with my stellar catching skills, I managed to get pegged in the neck with a sizeable yeast roll. Youch. It tasted good, though!
From there we went to our hotel, which wasn't quite ready for us yet, so we took the opportunity to look around Orange Beach a little and get our bearings. There isn't much to it, really, but we were ok with that. It's next door to Gulf Shores, which has all the cheesy beach stuff you could ever want, so we aren't far from anything we might want to do! We did accidentally drive into Florida, which we had no idea was as close as it was! When we returned, they let us up to our room and after dropping off my stuff, I immediately went out to the beach! Steve didn't come with me, as he was getting settled, but I couldn't wait! It was cold, y'all. I knew it wouldn't be warm, but geez. I was wearing three layers and the wind went through all of them! I didn't care though! I was at the beach! BEAAAAAAAAAAAACH!! (If you aren't aware, I enjoy visiting the coast of pretty much anywhere. Just FYI.) I walked around and took some pictures for a while. It's really beautiful, even if it's not bright and warm. I think I could just stand and listen to the waves for hours, regardless of the weather.
I thought Steve would come out, but he never did. I got cold waiting, so I finally went back inside. Steve had fallen asleep while I'd been out there (he must've been tired!) and so I took that opportunity to get myself settled. Our room has been changed from what we were supposed to be in, so we are on the second floor, right over the pool. The pool is indoor/outdoor and our room is right above the archway where it goes from indoor to outdoor, so we can go out on our balcony and look straight down to see who's in there. The bad part of that, though, is that because of where we are A) the pool light shines directly into our room, and B) anyone in the pool or hot tub can see into our room if we don't have the black-out curtain pulled. Oh well, I don't really care. I didn't want to wake Steve up, so I sat back to read for a while and dozed off myself! Oops. Well, when on vacation, I guess! We both woke up later and realized that we were hungry again, only it was getting kind of late. One thing about visiting a beach town during the WAY off season is that not a whole lot of things stay open late. We did find a good Italian place called Franco's, which had some awesome food. We closed the place down, which I felt bad about, but they seated us when we came in, so I guess they didn't care!
We weren't tired after our nap, so after dinner we drove over to Gulf Shores to look around. It was practically deserted, but that was fine. We were only going to be spending one full day down there, so we were finding places we wanted to see the next day. We did make one stop, to an Alvin's Island, which was still open. If you've never been to an Alvin's Island before, it's one of those ubiquitous (and I mean that literally, because wherever I've been to a beach, there have been numerous Alvin's Island stores in each town) souvenir stores where you can get anything from hermit crabs to knee boards. Seriously, any brightly colored, airbrushed, carved from a coconut thing with a stamp from whatever city you're visiting at the time you might want, they have it. It's the kind of place where you can find a tee-shirt for the "FBI: Female Body Inspector" or whatever pop culture slogan that is popular that year (I saw a lot of YOLO things, although I thought that had become passe by now.) You can also usually find skimpy bathing suits and slutty dresses upstairs, you know, for those who forgot to bring their own from home. It's the kind of place I equate with teenage girls making bad decisions while on vacation, or someone who thinks "Crap! I forgot to get Uncle Cleatus a souvenir! Oh, this mug shaped like a naked boob with the nipple you can drink out of, with Gulf Shores (or wherever) stamped on it will be perfect!" I won't lie, though, we visit one usually every time we are near. You kind of have to. It's tradition! :)
After that we came back to our hotel! Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and our only full day down here, so we are going to bed so we don't sleep all day!
Today we are celebrating the fact that Steve is officially no longer working and heading off on a beach adventure! Well, celebrating is probably not the right word. Taking advantage of the fact, might be a better way of putting it. Basically, I asked if we could take a quick trip somewhere and he picked Orange Beach, Alabama out of a list of places I'd mentioned I'd like to go! We are using a bunch of the points that he'd amassed from his business travels (not sure how that works, but it's paying for our hotel) and celebrating the new year at the beach!
We left a lot later than we planned because he had to go by his former workplace to fill out some paperwork. Apparently they were very much not on the ball because they didn't have whatever it was he was supposed to sign, but they told him they'd email it to him, so we finally got on the road. It wasn't a very eventful drive down, but we both like taking road trips, so it wasn't that bad. It's pretty much a straight shot down the state until you make one turn and then continue south again!
Our first stop was Lambert's Cafe, Home of the Throwed Rolls! No, seriously, that's what it's called. Most people around here might be familiar with the place, but in case you aren't, this is a huge restaurant where they will throw rolls at you. Not randomly, or anything like that. They don't just peg you in the head with a roll while you aren't paying attention. Just periodically throughout your meal some dude comes out of the kitchen with a wheeled cart and yells "HOT ROLLS!" and if you want one, they throw one your way. Yes, it's weird, but the food is good! The servers also circulate around the restaurant with big pots of side dishes that you can get some of if you want. It's kind of like eating at a grandma's house where people are constantly trying to give you more and more food, even if you've got a full plate, only no one gets in trouble for throwing bread! I had eaten at one of these places before when I was on an FFA trip in high school, but I didn't remember the roll guys throwing nearly as hard as our roll guy did. When he got around to us, he sent a fast pitch at me, and with my stellar catching skills, I managed to get pegged in the neck with a sizeable yeast roll. Youch. It tasted good, though!
From there we went to our hotel, which wasn't quite ready for us yet, so we took the opportunity to look around Orange Beach a little and get our bearings. There isn't much to it, really, but we were ok with that. It's next door to Gulf Shores, which has all the cheesy beach stuff you could ever want, so we aren't far from anything we might want to do! We did accidentally drive into Florida, which we had no idea was as close as it was! When we returned, they let us up to our room and after dropping off my stuff, I immediately went out to the beach! Steve didn't come with me, as he was getting settled, but I couldn't wait! It was cold, y'all. I knew it wouldn't be warm, but geez. I was wearing three layers and the wind went through all of them! I didn't care though! I was at the beach! BEAAAAAAAAAAAACH!! (If you aren't aware, I enjoy visiting the coast of pretty much anywhere. Just FYI.) I walked around and took some pictures for a while. It's really beautiful, even if it's not bright and warm. I think I could just stand and listen to the waves for hours, regardless of the weather.
I thought Steve would come out, but he never did. I got cold waiting, so I finally went back inside. Steve had fallen asleep while I'd been out there (he must've been tired!) and so I took that opportunity to get myself settled. Our room has been changed from what we were supposed to be in, so we are on the second floor, right over the pool. The pool is indoor/outdoor and our room is right above the archway where it goes from indoor to outdoor, so we can go out on our balcony and look straight down to see who's in there. The bad part of that, though, is that because of where we are A) the pool light shines directly into our room, and B) anyone in the pool or hot tub can see into our room if we don't have the black-out curtain pulled. Oh well, I don't really care. I didn't want to wake Steve up, so I sat back to read for a while and dozed off myself! Oops. Well, when on vacation, I guess! We both woke up later and realized that we were hungry again, only it was getting kind of late. One thing about visiting a beach town during the WAY off season is that not a whole lot of things stay open late. We did find a good Italian place called Franco's, which had some awesome food. We closed the place down, which I felt bad about, but they seated us when we came in, so I guess they didn't care!
We weren't tired after our nap, so after dinner we drove over to Gulf Shores to look around. It was practically deserted, but that was fine. We were only going to be spending one full day down there, so we were finding places we wanted to see the next day. We did make one stop, to an Alvin's Island, which was still open. If you've never been to an Alvin's Island before, it's one of those ubiquitous (and I mean that literally, because wherever I've been to a beach, there have been numerous Alvin's Island stores in each town) souvenir stores where you can get anything from hermit crabs to knee boards. Seriously, any brightly colored, airbrushed, carved from a coconut thing with a stamp from whatever city you're visiting at the time you might want, they have it. It's the kind of place where you can find a tee-shirt for the "FBI: Female Body Inspector" or whatever pop culture slogan that is popular that year (I saw a lot of YOLO things, although I thought that had become passe by now.) You can also usually find skimpy bathing suits and slutty dresses upstairs, you know, for those who forgot to bring their own from home. It's the kind of place I equate with teenage girls making bad decisions while on vacation, or someone who thinks "Crap! I forgot to get Uncle Cleatus a souvenir! Oh, this mug shaped like a naked boob with the nipple you can drink out of, with Gulf Shores (or wherever) stamped on it will be perfect!" I won't lie, though, we visit one usually every time we are near. You kind of have to. It's tradition! :)
After that we came back to our hotel! Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and our only full day down here, so we are going to bed so we don't sleep all day!
Saturday, December 13, 2014
WEIRD THINGS
This is going to sound crazy. It really is. I'm sorry about that.
Yesterday two very weird things happened to me and they both kind of freaked me out.
I finally forced myself to go and get a haircut yesterday, which necessitated a trip to the local mall. I didn't realize that the place had opened an hour earlier than normal due to holiday shopping, so instead of going in the door I usually do (which goes directly into a department store) I walked through the parking garage to go to the main entrance. To get to that entrance, I had to walk past a service parking area, which has some landscaping around it. There is a small tree planted near the building, and when I walked by it, it sneezed.
The tree sneezed.
It was loud enough to stop me in my tracks and look around, because at that moment, I was nowhere near anyone else in the parking garage. I know what you're thinking: that there was someone standing beside the tree who sneezed. There wasn't, though! I looked! I even looked up to see if anyone was in the tree or on an upper level of the parking garage looking down at the tree. There wasn't anyone else there! I'm ashamed to say that it scared me and I just noped my way as quickly as possible to the entrance to get away from it.
There may be a rational explanation, but I'll never accept it. The tree sneezed.
The second thing I saw wasn't as funny as that, but it still startled me. I was at church helping to set up for the choir's Christmas dinner. I'd been left alone while the other hostess went to pick up some of the food we'd ordered and after I'd checked everything, I sat down to check my phone. While I was doing that, I saw a bright flash out of the corner of my eye, like someone had walked in and taken a picture with a proper camera. I hadn't hear anyone walk into the kitchen, and I hadn't heard a camera sound, but the ice maker was kind of loud so I thought I just hadn't heard them come in. I turned around to see who was taking pictures and there was no one there! I'd seen the flash, there was no mistaking that, but I have no idea where it came from. I was very uncomfortable until she came back!
That is all.
Yesterday two very weird things happened to me and they both kind of freaked me out.
I finally forced myself to go and get a haircut yesterday, which necessitated a trip to the local mall. I didn't realize that the place had opened an hour earlier than normal due to holiday shopping, so instead of going in the door I usually do (which goes directly into a department store) I walked through the parking garage to go to the main entrance. To get to that entrance, I had to walk past a service parking area, which has some landscaping around it. There is a small tree planted near the building, and when I walked by it, it sneezed.
The tree sneezed.
It was loud enough to stop me in my tracks and look around, because at that moment, I was nowhere near anyone else in the parking garage. I know what you're thinking: that there was someone standing beside the tree who sneezed. There wasn't, though! I looked! I even looked up to see if anyone was in the tree or on an upper level of the parking garage looking down at the tree. There wasn't anyone else there! I'm ashamed to say that it scared me and I just noped my way as quickly as possible to the entrance to get away from it.
There may be a rational explanation, but I'll never accept it. The tree sneezed.
The second thing I saw wasn't as funny as that, but it still startled me. I was at church helping to set up for the choir's Christmas dinner. I'd been left alone while the other hostess went to pick up some of the food we'd ordered and after I'd checked everything, I sat down to check my phone. While I was doing that, I saw a bright flash out of the corner of my eye, like someone had walked in and taken a picture with a proper camera. I hadn't hear anyone walk into the kitchen, and I hadn't heard a camera sound, but the ice maker was kind of loud so I thought I just hadn't heard them come in. I turned around to see who was taking pictures and there was no one there! I'd seen the flash, there was no mistaking that, but I have no idea where it came from. I was very uncomfortable until she came back!
That is all.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
1) We had to get rid of our couch to put up the Christmas tree! Well, that's kind of misleading, because the couch was WAY past its expiration date and needed to be thrown away anyway. We'd gotten it a few months before we were married, and it had been thoroughly sat upon in it's time in our house. It wasn't even in any shape to donate or give away, unless someone wanted to risk tetanus by way of springs. When we were trying to figure out where we were going to move things so that we could put up the tree, we just decided that it was a good opportunity to finally move it out. We had a problem, though. We couldn't remember how it even got into the house in the first place. It had to be through the front door, as the garage door was broken when we originally bought the house, but try as we might we couldn't wedge it out the door.
(As an aside, I was still dressed for church when we started moving the thing out of the house. I helped move the couch in a dress and church shoes. If I'd been wearing a hat, it would have been perfect.)
We finally realized that since the couch was being thrown away, we didn't have to be careful with it, and so the only way to get it out of the house was to shove it over the stoop railing and into the front yard. Steve guided it over the edge and I pushed it until the point where gravity took over and then shoved it. About that time, the neighbor lady turned the corner to see a couch being forcefully ejected from our house. It never fails. Oy. We managed to get it to the street and out of our lives forever! Thank you, couch, for providing seating for so many friends!
Of course, until we manage to get another chair or something, we have nowhere for people to sit comfortably when they come to visit. Slowly but surely, we are making our house as inhospitable to others as possible! Maybe next we can get a piranha filled moat!
2) I know I said I wasn't going to talk about Butler anymore, but I lied. I miss him so much. In some ways, I think his dying has been harder on me than when we had to put Bear down. I honestly think I'd stopped thinking of Butler as a dog (I didn't forget he was a dog, so don't call the men with the nets) but he'd become more like a short, hairy roommate who watched TV with me and who I shared chips with. We were bros. I talked to him all the time and we took naps together. He knew all my secrets. After Bear died, we spent a lot more time with Butler inside so that he wouldn't get lonely, and I think it kept me from being lonely, too. Now that he's gone I keep thinking that if I'd just known what was wrong sooner, we could have gotten him to the vet in time. I hate to think his last couple of hours were scary and painful. He tried to let us know he needed help, but we didn't understand in time, so I feel like it was my fault he died. I feel less like I've lost a pet, and more like I lost a friend or family member and it's really weird because he wasn't human. Some people understand, but others don't. His absence is very conspicuous and I feel it every time I'm at home. I even feel bad about vacuuming because I know that his fur will eventually be all gone and as much of a plague as it always was, I don't want it to be gone. That probably really is weird.
Another strange thing is that people keep trying to give us dogs! I love that they are trying to help and want us not to be sad, but it's like losing an uncle or something and someone saying "Oh, I'm sorry, but here's this other old guy you can hang out with!" We can't get another dog until I'm sure that I won't expect him/her to be like Butler, because that would be unfair.
Anyway, I miss him a lot. Not even otters are helping me.
3) So, enough with that! Feelings....gross.
4) Have I ever mentioned how uncomfortable I am to go out with people who are cheap? I'm not talking about people who are conserving their money for some reason, or who don't have much to begin with, but honestly, outwardly, cheap people. They are so rude and the worst of it usually comes out in those people when you go to restaurants* with them.
The other night, I had dinner with an otherwise delightful friend who asked how much a certain menu item was. After finding out, they LOUDLY exclaimed that it was a rip off, and that they (the restaurant) could just keep it! Then he went on to talk about how much it was and how he could make 5 of them at home for that price. He just kept on. I wanted to sink into the floor. I've also had lunch with someone who once got the cheapest thing on the menu, and then literally spent the next 10 minutes after the meal bragging about how cheap the thing they ate was! I wasn't sure if I should congratulate them for being thrifty or if I should smother them with a pillow for bragging. I don't care how much or how little money a person has, we can all trim our sails in one way or another to hang out together, but seriously, don't talk about your money. It's crude and embarrassing, and there is never a good way to respond to it. Also, be nice to your waitress/waiter. Unless they are purposefully treating you badly, you have no reason to take out your frustrations on them!
Sorry. Bad restaurant etiquette bothers me as much as bad museum etiquette does. Apparently, since I'm practically perfect in every way, I can judge. Sorry!
*I realize I'm saying this as someone who once left a restaurant because of how much the set menu price was, and I will defend myself by reminding you that if I'd known in advance and was cool about it, we would have stayed and eaten there, it was just too much to spend without planning AND I didn't make a scene about it.
5) We had a guy come by today and ask the pastor about the moral implications of selling weed, as a way to raise money to start a business. I would normally no talk about things I hear at work, but that... I don't even have anything witty to say. That's just stupid.
(As an aside, I was still dressed for church when we started moving the thing out of the house. I helped move the couch in a dress and church shoes. If I'd been wearing a hat, it would have been perfect.)
We finally realized that since the couch was being thrown away, we didn't have to be careful with it, and so the only way to get it out of the house was to shove it over the stoop railing and into the front yard. Steve guided it over the edge and I pushed it until the point where gravity took over and then shoved it. About that time, the neighbor lady turned the corner to see a couch being forcefully ejected from our house. It never fails. Oy. We managed to get it to the street and out of our lives forever! Thank you, couch, for providing seating for so many friends!
Of course, until we manage to get another chair or something, we have nowhere for people to sit comfortably when they come to visit. Slowly but surely, we are making our house as inhospitable to others as possible! Maybe next we can get a piranha filled moat!
2) I know I said I wasn't going to talk about Butler anymore, but I lied. I miss him so much. In some ways, I think his dying has been harder on me than when we had to put Bear down. I honestly think I'd stopped thinking of Butler as a dog (I didn't forget he was a dog, so don't call the men with the nets) but he'd become more like a short, hairy roommate who watched TV with me and who I shared chips with. We were bros. I talked to him all the time and we took naps together. He knew all my secrets. After Bear died, we spent a lot more time with Butler inside so that he wouldn't get lonely, and I think it kept me from being lonely, too. Now that he's gone I keep thinking that if I'd just known what was wrong sooner, we could have gotten him to the vet in time. I hate to think his last couple of hours were scary and painful. He tried to let us know he needed help, but we didn't understand in time, so I feel like it was my fault he died. I feel less like I've lost a pet, and more like I lost a friend or family member and it's really weird because he wasn't human. Some people understand, but others don't. His absence is very conspicuous and I feel it every time I'm at home. I even feel bad about vacuuming because I know that his fur will eventually be all gone and as much of a plague as it always was, I don't want it to be gone. That probably really is weird.
Another strange thing is that people keep trying to give us dogs! I love that they are trying to help and want us not to be sad, but it's like losing an uncle or something and someone saying "Oh, I'm sorry, but here's this other old guy you can hang out with!" We can't get another dog until I'm sure that I won't expect him/her to be like Butler, because that would be unfair.
Anyway, I miss him a lot. Not even otters are helping me.
3) So, enough with that! Feelings....gross.
4) Have I ever mentioned how uncomfortable I am to go out with people who are cheap? I'm not talking about people who are conserving their money for some reason, or who don't have much to begin with, but honestly, outwardly, cheap people. They are so rude and the worst of it usually comes out in those people when you go to restaurants* with them.
The other night, I had dinner with an otherwise delightful friend who asked how much a certain menu item was. After finding out, they LOUDLY exclaimed that it was a rip off, and that they (the restaurant) could just keep it! Then he went on to talk about how much it was and how he could make 5 of them at home for that price. He just kept on. I wanted to sink into the floor. I've also had lunch with someone who once got the cheapest thing on the menu, and then literally spent the next 10 minutes after the meal bragging about how cheap the thing they ate was! I wasn't sure if I should congratulate them for being thrifty or if I should smother them with a pillow for bragging. I don't care how much or how little money a person has, we can all trim our sails in one way or another to hang out together, but seriously, don't talk about your money. It's crude and embarrassing, and there is never a good way to respond to it. Also, be nice to your waitress/waiter. Unless they are purposefully treating you badly, you have no reason to take out your frustrations on them!
Sorry. Bad restaurant etiquette bothers me as much as bad museum etiquette does. Apparently, since I'm practically perfect in every way, I can judge. Sorry!
*I realize I'm saying this as someone who once left a restaurant because of how much the set menu price was, and I will defend myself by reminding you that if I'd known in advance and was cool about it, we would have stayed and eaten there, it was just too much to spend without planning AND I didn't make a scene about it.
5) We had a guy come by today and ask the pastor about the moral implications of selling weed, as a way to raise money to start a business. I would normally no talk about things I hear at work, but that... I don't even have anything witty to say. That's just stupid.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
GOOD BOY
Last night, we lost our 13 year old yellow lab, Butler.
We got him a year after we got married, and we've loved him so much.
I knew the time was coming sooner than later, and I tried to prepare myself, but I honestly didn't expect it to happen the way it did.
We'd just picked him up from his stay at the pet resort where he'd been over Thanksgiving. He'd been home for about three hours when he started acting very strange. Steve and I debated whether we should take him to the emergency vet, just in case, and finally decided we should. It turned out he had a twisted stomach, something the vet said was common in breeds like his. He'd have to have surgery immediately. They took him back and we waited for two hours. When we saw the vet again, she told us that he hadn't even made it into surgery. His poor heart hadn't been strong enough to handle the surgery prep.
There are a lot of people who will not understand why we are so upset. They will think: he's just a dog.
He was never just a dog to me. He never will be. I loved him more than I can explain. It hurts.
That is all I will say about that.
We got him a year after we got married, and we've loved him so much.
I knew the time was coming sooner than later, and I tried to prepare myself, but I honestly didn't expect it to happen the way it did.
We'd just picked him up from his stay at the pet resort where he'd been over Thanksgiving. He'd been home for about three hours when he started acting very strange. Steve and I debated whether we should take him to the emergency vet, just in case, and finally decided we should. It turned out he had a twisted stomach, something the vet said was common in breeds like his. He'd have to have surgery immediately. They took him back and we waited for two hours. When we saw the vet again, she told us that he hadn't even made it into surgery. His poor heart hadn't been strong enough to handle the surgery prep.
There are a lot of people who will not understand why we are so upset. They will think: he's just a dog.
He was never just a dog to me. He never will be. I loved him more than I can explain. It hurts.
That is all I will say about that.
Monday, November 17, 2014
BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT, THAT'S WHY
I have often said the phrase "I've never felt so stupid in my life." It's one of those hyperbolic things that you'd say when you forget your debit card at Wal-Mart or forget where you park your car. However, I've never meant it quite as much as I mean it now. I'm fairly certain you'll agree with me.
I'd taken the day off last Thursday. I was sitting in the living room eating lunch and watching TV when someone knocked on the door. The knock was cheerful, so I thought it was the lady across the street (who incidentally is the only one of our neighbors who comes to our house, usually.) I answered the door and two girls were standing there. They said that they were collecting votes that would help them win a scholarship. I honestly can't tell you why my brain didn't engage right then, I'd like to think it was because I'm just a nice person, but I think it's because I'm stupid. I said I'd vote for them and they asked to come inside because it was so cold, so I let them in {STUPID #1.} I didn't really understand what it was that they were asking me to do, but it turned out that they were collecting votes: i.e. selling subscriptions to magazines that were donated to a children's hospital and the ones with the most subscriptions would win this contest. I'd had a similar thing happen a year or so ago when a girl from our neighborhood came by and asked for donations for a school thing, so I thought this was the same thing. I realized pretty quickly that this was different all together when one of the girls pulled out a receipt book and started writing out a receipt but, I still wasn't catching on. They were starting to make me nervous, because they kept getting really close to me and I kept having to step back. The thought actually went through my head that I'd have to fight them off because they were close enough to stab me. That didn't happen, of course. One of them asked to use my bathroom, and I said OK {STUPID #2} but that's when it hit me that something weird was going on. I stood where I could see the bathroom door as the other girl showed me the receipt, which was for way more money than I could pay her at that point, so she wrote another one for half (only one outrageously overpriced magazine subscription instead of two) and so I moved over the write a check, hoping they'd leave if I did that. The only time the bathroom door was out of sight was while I was writing that check, but the girl had been in there a long time. I know the girl never used the bathroom, because the toilet never flushed, and she had opened the bathroom door very quietly, because when I walked back to the door of the living room, I looked up and she was standing there in the bathroom doorway. When she walked back to me, her demeanor was very different, so I'm fairly certain she took a hit of something while in the bathroom, which pissed me off. I started looking at her to see if she had anything of ours on her, but I couldn't tell. They started asking me all kinds of questions about Butler, about this and that, but I finally got them out of my house.
I ran around looking to see if anything was missing and I didn't notice anything. I'm very grateful that I had been wearing my grandmother's wedding band, which would have been in plain sight of the girl in the bathroom had I left it where I usually do while I'm taking a shower. I looked up the name of the business that they said they were working for and saw that it is fairly well considered to be a scam. The main complaints were about not getting magazines that were ordered, but since the business lives in a kind of loophole where they are technically within the law, they are allowed to operate. I know that girl was looking for stuff in my bathroom, and I know they were trying to get a look at what we had in the house while they were in there. They were very good at trying to distract me, but I still have no idea why it took so long for me to realize what they were doing! Of course, now they have one of my checks and they've been inside my house. I'm pretty much terrified that they are either going to try and get into my bank account, or come back and rob my house. Not that we have anything valuable that we leave lying around, but still. Ugh. I'm so stupid. If I can get off relatively cheaply by the business just cashing my check and no magazines getting sent, I'll consider myself lucky.
Seriously, though...this is the dumbest I've ever felt, and if you know me, you know that's saying something!
I'd taken the day off last Thursday. I was sitting in the living room eating lunch and watching TV when someone knocked on the door. The knock was cheerful, so I thought it was the lady across the street (who incidentally is the only one of our neighbors who comes to our house, usually.) I answered the door and two girls were standing there. They said that they were collecting votes that would help them win a scholarship. I honestly can't tell you why my brain didn't engage right then, I'd like to think it was because I'm just a nice person, but I think it's because I'm stupid. I said I'd vote for them and they asked to come inside because it was so cold, so I let them in {STUPID #1.} I didn't really understand what it was that they were asking me to do, but it turned out that they were collecting votes: i.e. selling subscriptions to magazines that were donated to a children's hospital and the ones with the most subscriptions would win this contest. I'd had a similar thing happen a year or so ago when a girl from our neighborhood came by and asked for donations for a school thing, so I thought this was the same thing. I realized pretty quickly that this was different all together when one of the girls pulled out a receipt book and started writing out a receipt but, I still wasn't catching on. They were starting to make me nervous, because they kept getting really close to me and I kept having to step back. The thought actually went through my head that I'd have to fight them off because they were close enough to stab me. That didn't happen, of course. One of them asked to use my bathroom, and I said OK {STUPID #2} but that's when it hit me that something weird was going on. I stood where I could see the bathroom door as the other girl showed me the receipt, which was for way more money than I could pay her at that point, so she wrote another one for half (only one outrageously overpriced magazine subscription instead of two) and so I moved over the write a check, hoping they'd leave if I did that. The only time the bathroom door was out of sight was while I was writing that check, but the girl had been in there a long time. I know the girl never used the bathroom, because the toilet never flushed, and she had opened the bathroom door very quietly, because when I walked back to the door of the living room, I looked up and she was standing there in the bathroom doorway. When she walked back to me, her demeanor was very different, so I'm fairly certain she took a hit of something while in the bathroom, which pissed me off. I started looking at her to see if she had anything of ours on her, but I couldn't tell. They started asking me all kinds of questions about Butler, about this and that, but I finally got them out of my house.
I ran around looking to see if anything was missing and I didn't notice anything. I'm very grateful that I had been wearing my grandmother's wedding band, which would have been in plain sight of the girl in the bathroom had I left it where I usually do while I'm taking a shower. I looked up the name of the business that they said they were working for and saw that it is fairly well considered to be a scam. The main complaints were about not getting magazines that were ordered, but since the business lives in a kind of loophole where they are technically within the law, they are allowed to operate. I know that girl was looking for stuff in my bathroom, and I know they were trying to get a look at what we had in the house while they were in there. They were very good at trying to distract me, but I still have no idea why it took so long for me to realize what they were doing! Of course, now they have one of my checks and they've been inside my house. I'm pretty much terrified that they are either going to try and get into my bank account, or come back and rob my house. Not that we have anything valuable that we leave lying around, but still. Ugh. I'm so stupid. If I can get off relatively cheaply by the business just cashing my check and no magazines getting sent, I'll consider myself lucky.
Seriously, though...this is the dumbest I've ever felt, and if you know me, you know that's saying something!
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