The Small Print

I was having a conversation with the receptionist from the University Of Washington Medical Center a few days ago.  I was recounting the progress that Greg was making. I told her he had lost 25 pounds so far, to which she exclaimed "Wow! He should be on one of those infomercials". I said, "I know he is doing great, but me on the other hand am doing exactly the same thing he is, but I have lost 4 pounds all together." She paused and said "Well I guess your results would be in the small print disclaimer". Yep that would be me...the small print where it says results not typical.

Well at least I can rest easy knowing I AM doing something healthy for my body, even if my body refuses to reward me. Maybe soon that elusive metabolism will kick in and I will just see the pounds fly off. I can dream right!?

So on another note, we have finished the staging stage of selling our house. I did the final step at 5:30 last night. Today the window guys come to replace to failed windows, and the yard guys come to make the yard look its best and the professional photographer comes to take the pictures for the MLS.  Then when all that is finished we will sit down with Joanne our agent and sign the listing papers. Then she will work her magic and our house will show up on the MLS on Friday. I am praying just the right family is in town for Labor Day week end and will come look at our house and fall in love with it and buy it in a week end just like we did 24 years ago.

This weekend we are off for the big city of Ellensburg, where resides two of the cutest little boys on the face of the earth, and their much loved mommy and daddy. We are all going to The Ellensburg rodeo. I have wanted to go to it for years, and finally will get to see it. You gotta love a good rodeo! I am just wishing my favorite cowgirl (Whit) was able to join us with her precious little peanut Sky and our Mattie Matt. Not only would it be wonderful to see them, but we would also be able to understand what we were watching. Oh well I never let a small mater like failing to understand something, limit my enjoyment of it ! (Track, rock climbing, wrestling, soccer, gymnastics, football and baseball all come to mind, but I suppose it was the child that was participating that interested me and not the sport itself) So we are off to the rodeo, and our house is going to sell while we play :-) !!!

So I come to the point of this little update...sorry I rambled :-).....

PLEASE BE IN PRAYER THAT OUR HOUSE SELLS AND THAT IT SELLS FOR AT LEAST 550,000. We are going to list for 580,000 and hope we get it, but if we have to we can come down to 550,000, but no less.

We hope to get out to the canal to see our dream house in the next few weeks and will decide if it is what we really want. Then if it is, we will make a contingent offer on it. So lots to pray over, and we would really appreciate all prayer we can get, since it will take a miracle for our house to sell in this market.

Here is a little aside prayer request; PLEASE PUT LANCE AND VAL ON YOUR PRAYER LIST. THEY LEAVE FOR COLUMBIA TOMORROW. WHERE PEOPLE GET ROBBED AND KIDNAPED A LITTLE TOO OFTEN FOR COMFORT.

On that note I will say good-bye for now...maybe next time you hear from me it will be to tell you we sold!

God Bless You! Joanne

OK so I have a problem with follow through.....

This morning I got a email from my sweet Valerie who is always trying to encourage me in my journey towards health. It was a gentle reminder that I did indeed HAVE a blog and I had apparently deserted it like I have so many of my attempts at becoming healthy.

Well not to be dissuaded by past failures, here I go again :-)

Since I last wrote here, I did indeed loose weigh for the "Wedding of the year". I wore the dress that had been 2 sizes too small and even had it taken in a bit. Hurray for the mother of the groom!

But sad for the 51 year old lady that gained it all back right after the afore said wedding!

Well here I am this year with 90 pounds to loose again, but with  a very different motivation...The man that I love (Gregory Duane) has cancer.

 It is prostate cancer and he has it in more than half of his prostate. The treatment we have chosen to start with is a strict diet, mostly plant based, to get him back to health over all, and then have him retested (hoping for a miracle that says he no longer has cancer) and then if the test shows he still needs treatment we will either have radiation or surgery. His chances for success with either treatment option will be greatly increased by his weight loss and a better, healthier lifestyle, so we are very motivated to continue down this path.

We have now been on this journey for almost 4 weeks, Greg has lost almost 20 pounds, I on the other hand was happy with my 7 pound loss.....then came vacation.....where I stayed on the diet with the exception of having maybe 4 alcoholic drinks over the course of the 5 days....well, I gained 5 pounds from those 4 little drinks!!! Five pounds!!!How does that even happen!?

So this new week has brought a new beginning..well not really a beginning, since I didn't really quit last week....I guess I can just say a continuation of what we started. Greg is doing great, loosing weigh like crazy and will be lower than he has been in years very soon....I am just continuing to plug away and trying to NOT focus on the weigh issue, but focus instead on HEALTH. We have also been exercising at least 4 days during the week, but trying to achieve 6 or 7 days.

I DO feel so much healthier! I am sleeping better, my ability to think (which is hampered by my fibromyalgia) is better and I feel good emotionally  knowing I am on my way to health....Oh by the way, Gregs blood preasure is lower than it has been for YEARS! We are trying to decide if it is because of something He IS eating or something he ISN'T eating...we are thinking it might be due to the massive amount of green things we eat!

So in the infamous words of our daughter in love, Valerie..."It tastes like plant!" is the new motto of our life...we even drink things that look like green slugged and USUALLY taste good, though I must say there have been a few things that have gone down the drain rather than past our lips!

We are challenged every day(mostly me) in cooking things that have varied and wonderful tastes and are such a far cry from what we naturally would eat or cook, but so satisfying when we manage to have a fantastic meal that is full of cancer fighting agents and also contributing to our over all state of health!

I will try to attach some of the wonderful recipes to the blog as I go.....eating plants doesn't have to be boring and I will try to encourage you to "branch" out as I make new and fun discoveries.

Continue to pray for us as we walk this journey (especially for Greg and his cancer!) and I will TRY to do a better job of including you in our adventure!

Bon-a-plant  (in case my attempt at humor flies right past you that is a play on Bon-appetit :-)  )

Joanne

My motivation has arrived

I guess this is a once a month thing with me...it was 4 weeks ago that I wrote last! Since that time I was infused with a new motivation..how did that happen you ask!?   I WENT DRESS SHOPPING! I have a new dress (three actually) that I bought for the wedding of the year.....but my favorite is two sizes too small. Why would I buy a dress two sizes too small you ask (your asking a lot of questions!) ......because it is so much cuter that way! I answer...oh and it was the only size (being a great deal and all) I had to get it.

So there you go...instant motivation.

So Monday i began THE diet. It would consist of two protein drinks in the day, and then a meal of meat and veggies in the evening. Have I mentioned that i am starving ALL the time!? I hope that will go away after the first two weeks. I am trying to do something physical (vitamin E Matt calls it :-)  ) and have succeeded every day this week so far. So here we go....can she do it...twenty pounds by July 25th (that gives me a few days to get a different dress if I don't make it)

I think I can... I think I can......she says with hope in her voice!
The trick is keeping my motivation, so pray for me that I will preserver in the face of good food!
Well that about covers it for this update.....Thanks for all your encouragement, this is definitely a "team" effort :-)

walkin..

I did it!! She says in her best Caleb imitation! So today while gchatting with Val, she "encouraged" me to walk today..since I failed to do it the day before when I said I would. I started to say it was too ugly outside when I changed my mind..and said I would "just dooo it!" So where did I walk you might ask...well I walked for 45 minutes around and around the center wall of our house, down the hall, through the kitchen and up and down the stairs :-) The only thing that kept me sane was the fact that I knew the way without looking so I was able to read while walking :-) Kinda cool since I usually have to look at my feet to keep from spraining my ankle on some unknown dip in the walkway. So there you go... I had a walk :-) Maybe tomorrow I can do it again...2 walks in a week might be a bit over the top though, so we will see :-) Love you guys!!!!

What!???

No I refuse to believe it has been 2 months since I last wrote here..it was suppose to be like a weekly thing.....well there is no time like the present they always say!

My dear sister wrote me today asking what ever happen to the diet blog..and I have to admit it has seriously fallen prey to the " I just don't want to think about it" bug. So here I am climbing back on the horse (thought I would throw that in , in honor of our birthday boy Mattie Matt) and pickin up the reins to restart the infamous diet blog.

I am thinking I have been getting a bit out of hand lately, I am NOT gaining weight, but I am not losing either. So walking you say, is the solution, I agree, but I just don't like it! I lost 1 pound over Easter week end, and all I can attribute it to is the little walk we all took to Mark Twain to fly Greg's airplane..guess it doesn't take much!?

So I am thinking....if it would just stop raining...OK, I know that is just a excuse. I will walk this week..I will walk this week..I will...so that is the message of this little post...I will, and if I don't you can all have permission to...well I don't know what you have permission to do, but you wont have to cause, I WILL.

I Love you all...God Bless you!

Oh and may I say in a official web post that I am SO happy about the ring that rests on a certain someones finger!? No, not mine (though I do like that one) but the one on my future daughter in laws finger....Yea!!!! For Katie and Jon getting engaged!!! Your wedding is my motivation by the way :-)

I admit it

OK I admit it...the jelly beans were calling me and I ate two handfuls. The good news is I didnt continue down that slippery slope and I had a good day today so I am still on my way to health. I havent really lost any weight but I I have been doing better with my stomach issues..I havent had to take tums since I started this eating plan and after I blew it the other night I had to go straight to the tums. If nothing else my stomach is keeping me accountable :-).

All that to say Im still doing OK and I am moving forward. Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers.. please keep it up :-)

Cleaning closets with a woman with a beach ball belly

Jennifer came over today and we clean out all the closets, we organized, sorted and she told me where to put things. Organization is the most overwhelming thing I can think of...so Jenn came over to focus me, and she did a great job!

Now if I can just take that same motivation and use it to loose weight! I started this blog in September and was going to write in it daily..well it is January and this is first entry. Well better late than never right!

So I have been sick since November when I got Swine flu, then it never fully went away and it apparently weakened my lungs because while we were in Aruba visiting Ryan I got pneumonia and have been battling that for 3 weeks. I am still weak and coughing but I hope I am almost better because I am about to get a new grandson..Jude Michael Land! I cant wait to meet him and today was his due date..

Matt and Whitney fly in tomorrow and I am convinced he has been waiting for them to get here. Jenn has been thinking he was coming for over a week now and she is getting quite impatient!

Well my house is all ready now for all the family that will be coming and going for the next 8 weeks...Matt and Whit now, Ryan on the first of February, Jon and Katie, March first and Marce sometime in march, Mom might come up as well..we will see if she feels like she can make it.

Well that is where I am at right now...lots of family coming and going till the end of March...can I be successful and loose weigh during a time like that ...well let see what happens should we???

Tomorrow I think I will put away all the food that I shouldnt be eatting and make hot oats for breakfast... or maybe I should do Atkins thing, that is a bit simpler...well stay tuned and we will see what the next day brings