Wednesday, September 17, 2003
I was really bad this evening- we ate Mexican, and I went ahead and had chips and queso. I am sooo tired of being good. I know most people break their diets far more often than I do. Mostly I'm happy with the fruit-and-nuts deal; I really like fruit, and summer is a great time for it. But all of a sudden I had this craving for queso. It was blocking all other thought out of my mind. I just HAD to give in. I suspect I'll have a rough night tonight; luckily, I don't have to be at school tomorrow until 2 p.m. This is the first time that I've had chips and queso since last December. Curra's, one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, serves their queso with lots of pico de gallo, guacamole, and ground beef in it. Mmmmmmmm.
I spent about three days' worth of spare time building a new cage for Chili the chinchilla. Turns out that Gizmo, our largest rabbit, could hop right up on top of Chili's old cage, sorta dangerous for Gizmo not to mention alarming to Chili. New cage is 3.5 feet tall, I think it will stop Gizmo in his tracks. It gives Chili more room to bounce, too, and I made it with an area tall enough for a 14" running wheel, something most commercial cages don't have room for. Chili will get more exercise than I do. He is 11 years old now, quite middle aged for a chinchilla, so he needs exercise at least as much as I do. (Average lifespan of chinchillas, depending on who you read, is anywhere from 12 to 18 years.) I still don't exercise much; it's BORING. Now, chasing down the chinchilla when he's having floor time, to get him back in his cage for the night, that's exercise I don't mind. It's amazing how nimble a 2-pound rodent can be!
I spent about three days' worth of spare time building a new cage for Chili the chinchilla. Turns out that Gizmo, our largest rabbit, could hop right up on top of Chili's old cage, sorta dangerous for Gizmo not to mention alarming to Chili. New cage is 3.5 feet tall, I think it will stop Gizmo in his tracks. It gives Chili more room to bounce, too, and I made it with an area tall enough for a 14" running wheel, something most commercial cages don't have room for. Chili will get more exercise than I do. He is 11 years old now, quite middle aged for a chinchilla, so he needs exercise at least as much as I do. (Average lifespan of chinchillas, depending on who you read, is anywhere from 12 to 18 years.) I still don't exercise much; it's BORING. Now, chasing down the chinchilla when he's having floor time, to get him back in his cage for the night, that's exercise I don't mind. It's amazing how nimble a 2-pound rodent can be!
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
Tuesday nights are Band rehearsals. I play in the volunteer municipal band, an organization for people who never outgrew marching band. We've rehearsed every Tuesday evening except 6 weeks each summer for 21 years now. The band is getting greyer - there are some new members every year, but the core of people who started out 20+ years ago are all, well, 20+ years older. The guy who sits next to me had a heart attack a couple years ago. He has not lost weight since then, though - I worry about him. I've lost over 30 pounds since getting diagnosed with heart failure. I hope it will do me some good. One thing I noticed when rehearsals started up a couple weeks ago was the difference between my energy levels this year and last year at the same time. In August 2002, when rehearsals started, I hadn't been diagnosed yet, and we were still struggling to find out why I was always so short of breath. The corridor leading from the outside to the band hall is an uphill one; last year, in the length of a corridor that's only a hundred feet or so, I had to stop and rest 3 or 4 times along the way as I headed to the band hall. This year, while I still wouldn't want to sprint, especially while carrying 30 pounds of tenor saxophone, case, music, accessories, etc., I can walk quite steadily up the corridor without stopping. That's a vast improvement, due almost entirely to the diuretics clearing out my lungs.
The same sort of thing occurred at the Mensa RG in the previous post. The hotel where Lonestar holds its RGs has a set of stairs leading to the meeting rooms; the stairs wind around, 4 stairs, then a landing and a turn and 4 stairs in a different direction, then another landing and turn, and so on. Last year, I had to stop on every one of those landings and rest. This year, although I still wouldn't try and bound up the stairs 2 at a time, I could walk steadily up the stairs without stopping.
I still don't have as much energy as I'd like to, especially when the weather is really, really hot. I still need a nap every afternoon, and tend to sleep 10 or more hours a day rather than 7 or 8. But being able to breathe normally is a vast improvement in quality of life.
On nights when we have rehearsals, we tend to eat out before rehearsals. A pizza place called Frank & Angie's has a 2-for-1 special on individual pepperoni pizzas, the 10" kind. Now, pizza is basically a large lump of sodium and fat - cheese, pepperoni; the crust has salt in it, and tomato sauce is LOADED with salt. But these pizzas have relatively small amounts of tomato sauce, and I pick off half the pepperoni. And all I eat during the day before that is fruit and nuts - no sodium whatsoever during the day. So I have my entire 2000 mg allowance available to blow on the pizza. It's worth it to me. Especially during the summer, when plums and peaches and nectarines and pluots are 99 cents a pound, I have no trouble at all sticking to fresh fruit. I buy unsalted nuts in bulk, usually hazelnuts (filberts). So 3 pieces of fruit and a dozen nuts or so (a handful is anywhere from 8-15 nuts, depending on the type of nut and the angle I reach into the container) is lunch. There are lots worse ways to meet one's daily servings according to the food pyramid!
The same sort of thing occurred at the Mensa RG in the previous post. The hotel where Lonestar holds its RGs has a set of stairs leading to the meeting rooms; the stairs wind around, 4 stairs, then a landing and a turn and 4 stairs in a different direction, then another landing and turn, and so on. Last year, I had to stop on every one of those landings and rest. This year, although I still wouldn't try and bound up the stairs 2 at a time, I could walk steadily up the stairs without stopping.
I still don't have as much energy as I'd like to, especially when the weather is really, really hot. I still need a nap every afternoon, and tend to sleep 10 or more hours a day rather than 7 or 8. But being able to breathe normally is a vast improvement in quality of life.
On nights when we have rehearsals, we tend to eat out before rehearsals. A pizza place called Frank & Angie's has a 2-for-1 special on individual pepperoni pizzas, the 10" kind. Now, pizza is basically a large lump of sodium and fat - cheese, pepperoni; the crust has salt in it, and tomato sauce is LOADED with salt. But these pizzas have relatively small amounts of tomato sauce, and I pick off half the pepperoni. And all I eat during the day before that is fruit and nuts - no sodium whatsoever during the day. So I have my entire 2000 mg allowance available to blow on the pizza. It's worth it to me. Especially during the summer, when plums and peaches and nectarines and pluots are 99 cents a pound, I have no trouble at all sticking to fresh fruit. I buy unsalted nuts in bulk, usually hazelnuts (filberts). So 3 pieces of fruit and a dozen nuts or so (a handful is anywhere from 8-15 nuts, depending on the type of nut and the angle I reach into the container) is lunch. There are lots worse ways to meet one's daily servings according to the food pyramid!
Monday, September 01, 2003
Wow, here I haven't been for nearly a week. Sorry about that. I spent the weekend at a Mensa Regional Gathering, which stands for "let's invade an unsuspecting hotel, hold chocolate tastings, and stay in the hot tub till way after hours." Mostly, I was eating junk food from the hospitality suite, but the guy running hospitality did make some macaroni salad with no salt in it, so I had some of that. And the Bananas Foster (ever seen flaming bananas made in a crock pot?) was good.
I was presenting a workshop at the RG (crafts, nothing y'all would be interested in) and someone took pictures. It was amazing to see myself in the photos- I had not realized just how much difference 30 pound weight loss would mean. I look way different. And people who hadn't seen me since last Labor Day weekend noticed the difference - that was nice. (Austin holds a regional gathering Labor Day weekend, Dallas does theirs Thanksgiving weekend, Houston does theirs Memorial Day. About 80% of the people who go to each are the same people - and if you want to travel, you could attend a Mensa RG every weekend of the year somewhere in the country. All of which would feature chocolate and hot tubs, and pretty much none of which would feature any evidence of high intelligence. I don't go to any RGs but our own; I'm not that much of a party animal.)
'Scuse me, my hearing aid battery is beeping "I'm dying" at me - gotta go.
I was presenting a workshop at the RG (crafts, nothing y'all would be interested in) and someone took pictures. It was amazing to see myself in the photos- I had not realized just how much difference 30 pound weight loss would mean. I look way different. And people who hadn't seen me since last Labor Day weekend noticed the difference - that was nice. (Austin holds a regional gathering Labor Day weekend, Dallas does theirs Thanksgiving weekend, Houston does theirs Memorial Day. About 80% of the people who go to each are the same people - and if you want to travel, you could attend a Mensa RG every weekend of the year somewhere in the country. All of which would feature chocolate and hot tubs, and pretty much none of which would feature any evidence of high intelligence. I don't go to any RGs but our own; I'm not that much of a party animal.)
'Scuse me, my hearing aid battery is beeping "I'm dying" at me - gotta go.
