Major appliance failure

A few months ago our fridge gave up the ghost, and now the dryer died. The washer was perilously close to death as well and had a mysterious periodic leak, so we bit the bullet, applied for credit, and ordered a matching set of the second-cheapest from Home Depot: Maytag, commercial grade, allegedly good for 25 years. Front loaders are cool, and it would have been fun to get them in some jazzy color, but it was hardly necessary and we're paying off surgery bills. I'm waiting for our new set to be delivered now, and I wish they'd shake a leg. I have so few things that fit me that laundry needs frequent doing these days.

I am not losing weight as quickly as I was initially, but I was relieved to get on the scale this morning and see a couple more pounds gone. I can tell by the way clothes fit, too. I was 237 this morning; that is the least I've weighed in about ten years. I'm doing better with keeping drinking and eating separate, and physically I am feeling great. I'm still tired, but that has to do with work and life stuff. I finally got my fancy-schmancy scale today. It's mostly made of glass, and it doesn't work properly on a carpeted floor. It kept cycling between weights in the 140s and I thought, "If only." Then it said "Error" and I discovered it has to be used on bare floors. It can figure body fat ratio as well, but I didn't have the strength to see what that was today. When I think of my body fat being measured, images of calipers and public humiliation spring forth, and I'm not really in the mood.

On Monday, a doctor is supposed to make the final determination as to whether my grandmother can return to living independently or not. Everything hinges on that when it comes to her situation.

My ankle surgery is Thursday, the 1st. They have told me if I am not in too much pain and can maneuver my knee scooter, I don't have to be off work the entire month that I am non-weight-bearing. We'll see. I haven't picked the scooter up yet. Mr. Salted will be off for the first ten days with me, so hopefully any granny duties that may arise will do so during that time so that he can drive me. I may carpool to work with one of my friends from there. I am SO glad to have this job; I don't know how we would have managed if these folks hadn't asked me to come back. They have been really flexible, too, which has been a huge help.

Plateau? ALREADY???

I'm afraid I may have hit a weight plateau--ALREADY. Isn't it a little early? Jeebus. My weight hasn't changed in a couple of days--but I don't have a great scale. It cost $9.99 and we only bought it to weigh our luggage for international travel--until that trip, I banished scales from my house for the majority of my adult life. The needle on my current scale is dodgy enough to have to be adjusted almost every time it is used. I try not to obsess about what it says. My nutritionist advised to get a scale that measured body fat as well as weight to prevent me from being discouraged when the inevitable plateau interludes occur. It looks like that type of scale costs about $80.

I'm doing better with separating eating and drinking by half an hour--not as well with getting in the protein every day. My daily intake has been more in the 40-50g range rather than the 60-80g. Sometimes I want something to actually CHEW--so sue me. So far, I like to crunch on Life cereal, oyster crackers, and that BearNaked granola stuff. I am still super paranoid about my hair falling out--every time I touch my head I'm checking my hand for excess hair loss. So far, so good.

I still haven't really been tempted by food I absolutely used to live for. Doughnuts at the office? I just think about how sick I would get. It's very simple inside my brain: doughnut = vomit. When I have gone out to a restaurant, I either have cup of soup or a dinner salad, either of which I can only finish maybe 1/3 of. My husband was sitting next to me eating a burger and fries last night. I looked at his fries and all I could think about was how sick I could get. I still haven't whipped out the gastric bypass card they gave me. I tried to drink a diet Coke and after two sips I could tell my stomach didn't like it. Water remains my nearest and dearest liquid friend.

Today, I did Sit and Be Fit for the first time. It was nice and easy. I don't have a good straightbacked chair, just an office chair with a pillow behind me for back support. I didn't work up much of a sweat, but it has to help with range of motion and circulation. It will be so great when the ankle gets repaired and I can move around again. I'm feeling fantastic physically and actually looking forward to moving more.