Life Changin Stuffs

*218* <----OMG Yes!


   I am late with this cause yesterday I had an adventure. I would have posted about it last night but my ass was tired, I had a piece of cake to eat, and YouTube videos to catch up on. I am here bright and bushy tailed early to give you the scoops while I drink my coffee(s).

   First off, I am 8lbs from my first goal. IF you ever read my posts from the beginning, my first real weight loss goal was to get down to 210. That was the perfect number for me when the kids were little. I wasn't morbidly obese but I wasn't classified as thin. It was okay with me, back then. When you eat LCHF, weight loss is tricky. You can have long stalls which would make you feel like you want to give up. But if you wait, you will be rewarded. I was stuck at 226-227 for like 6 weeks. It didn't matter what I did, that is where I would be. The other day I weighed myself at the pharmacy. 219 popped up on the screen! Yes! Then yesterday at the Drs office...218. I have lost approx 65 lbs since I started this blog. Took me multiple years but hey..it is gone.

  Yesterday I took the train to Providence, RI to have a consultation with the gut doctor at the Women`s Collaborative. She is a Cdiff Doctor. We talked for about a half hour or so. She is going to do it for me. Yay!  Her nurse was not in the office so she will call me today to set up appt for the procedure. It is done through colonoscopy. I had to read and initial alot of paperwork because you are considered a volunteer, not a patient. Fecal transplant is still experimental. The FDA has not approved it as a cure for cdiff. They probably wont in the near future because they wont pump money in for poop, essentially. So I will sit here and wait for the phone call.

   I have two important appointments coming up at the beginning of next month. I see the ortho at Yale to talk about my scans and my hips. We have to figure out if my hips are actually my hips or is it my spine. The other appt is to see a Weed Doctor. Yes my friends. I am finally going to get my medical marijuana card. I have been talking about it for awhile but I just never took the initiative. It is funny though. I do this and our state might make it legal to smoke recreationally. If that happens, it wont happen till January. I could wait but I think I just want to do it. So yeah. Judge me if you want. I gotta help my body and the brain.

  Okay. I gotta go. It is nearly 930 and I have to make breakfast and plan my day. I will share pics from the kid`s birthday this week in my next post.

Bundle up! It is chilly out there!

Health always takes a header at the end of the year

I know I already posted for this week but I have had some developments that I thought I would document.
First off, I finally got a appointment with the gastro specialist in Providence, Dr Colleen Kelly. I see her this coming Monday for a consultation. She will be the one that will do the fecal transplant (FT) for the cdiff. I guess she has to decide if I am worthy. I hope I am worthy! I have been told that I should also make a trip to Cheesecake Factory to pick up cake and apps for the children. The train station is right across the street from it. I will maybe oblige.

  Yesterday, I  had my MRI, which went fine. I only needed one of the Valium and I didnt freak out. It was basically a uneventful day. Did not take long for the effects from the pill to wear off. This morning, my neuro calls. He says that I have some flattening of my L5/S1 (the one i had surgery on). He says it looks bone on bone. But those are not the discs that deal with my hip issues. Since my ortho (that I have only seen once!) is closing, He is referring me to a Ortho at the Yale office. If they find that my hip pain is not for the Ortho to deal with, he will refer me to a spine surgeon. I said I am okay if you all say it is from getting older. Shit happens. But with my history, something that looks benign could turn out to be something yucky.

I just want to catch anything before it gets worse.

That is about it. My bacon and egg lunch is waiting and Kid #2 and I will take a walk after. Easy day cause AHS is gonna be THE shit tonight!!

October Monday

Mums in the yard

*223*

   I am in the midst of my typical Monday. I wanted to do this but I also have all my shit to do. So today is the day to get it done. My Mondays are pretty consistent for me. Sometimes I wish I could just ignore Mondays but that would screw up the chi for the rest of the week.

7am wake up. 
Let dogs outside. Wait outside because there have been coyote in the area.
Make coffee
Feed cats and dogs.
Give Lu meds
Take out 4 recycle buckets to the street. Take out any trash to the bin. Garbage day
Start first load of laundry.
Usually the kitchen is a disaster from the weekend, so stack all the dishes and such. Hot soapy water in dishpan.
Defrost dinner stuff.
Make hard boiled eggs, cucumber salad, and cheddar slices for the week.
Water plants
All the while I take the dogs out, do more laundry, fold said laundry, sweep, etc etc etc. I had stuff to mail out for ebay and I had to go to the pharmacy.

You add in all the other little things like appointments and seasonal shit, yard work, and I am beat. I still have to make dinner. I always crash at around 8am.

  Oh, I tried a cool recipe this weekend. It is a keto mug cake. Put in a mug: 1 scoop of whey protein powder, 1 egg, and 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder. Mix. If it is too thick, add a little bit of almond milk or water. Give it the consistency of brownie mix. Microwave on high for 60 seconds. That is it! I put whipping cream and stevia in the kitchen-aid to make keto whipped cream for the topper. Hubs and I both liked it. That will be nice to have or once in awhile.

 This past week I had the junker aka Nissan fixed. It needed four rotors, four brake pads, two calipers, battery, muffler, all fluids done, oil, and spark plugs. She sat for too long but she is back on the road and I don't have to chauffeur everyone around like before.  I am broke as all get out because of it. It is a major lean week. I am sitting here wishing for lunch but I have dinner foods only. But the car is fixed! That page on my to-do list is done! I gotta set up a new list. That one sat there for a couple months while I scratched each thing off. 

  Guess how much two 2mg Valium cost me? Just take a wild guess! I will wait........(switching out laundry)

80 cents!!
I was actually happy to see that. Like I said before, we are poor as hell this week. I had to have those pills so I can withstand the MRI. (Yes folks, sometimes you can be so broke that $1-2 makes a major difference in your life.)
This was the MRI I was supposed to have in September but I was a stupid ass and got a tattoo. My hips have been bothering me a whole lot. The ortho said it was not my hips per say. The PT therapist said she thought it was my spine like another herniation. My neuro is appeasing me and letting me have the MRI to just make sure there is nothing bad going on. I am not looking for another surgery right now. Just some answers. I probably wont hear anything till this week or so. Hubby sees him at the end of the month too for his foot issues. Wish me luck that I do okay in the big loud machine.

Tonight we are having taco salad with cheddar cheese crisps that I will make in the oven. I just saw that one of them ate the last avocado. Grrrr! I have to put post it notes on every fucking thing. Guess that will be missing from the salad. 

That is about it. We are in the middle of decorating for Halloween and I will post about that next time.

Have a great week! 

 
 

Frosty October Mornings are Good

*222* <---that was last week

  Today is Columbus Day. I am not in a debating mood about this holiday, but I want to say something. I am very PRO Indigenous Peoples Day and a day should be designated as a national holiday. Period. My husband, my children, my MIL, and all of her offspring are Indian.  My grandfather came from Italy in the end of the 1800s. He came through Ellis Island. I saw the copies of the paperwork. Italians were treated like shit in this country for many many many years. That is not saying that what happened to them and what happened to America`s native people are equal. Far far from it. You will not get an argument from me about that topic. I live in the area where the Pequot nation was at war with the English. The majority of Italians, my small 1/4 piece included, look at Columbo day as our holiday. A celebration of being Italian and the struggles and the triumphs. It was never about Columbus. It was a day off. It was a big dinner.  I just think that both sides should be recognized as being equally important. *off soapbox*

   I am on my 2nd of coffee. I learned something recently. Drinking bullet proof coffee in place of breakfast will not help with weight loss. You have to either drink it with a meal to offset your fat intake, drink it as a mid day fat add if you are hungry, or dont drink it at all. It will stall me. So I drink plain coffee in the morning and I save the BPC for later in the afternoon as a pick me up both caffeine and fat wise. I dont like *cheat days* because this is a way of life for me. 

 I totally stepped away for like 2 hours cause I had to do some stuffs. Today is a busy Monday. I am eating my lunch now (three halves of deviled eggs, 4 (maybe 5) slices of bacon and three cherry peppers). After that, we have to go to the garden, harvest the rest of the peppers, and cut everything down.  I have potato leek soup cooking in the crockpot. I will freeze it later so that Kid #1 can eat it. I am going to steadily work on finishing the trim in the livingroom. Tonight`s dinner is taco salad and keto jalapeno poppers. I am also going to cook some crispy chicken skin. Yes, I said skin. It is a keto thing and you wouldnt understand.

  The eye doctor told me that I am not blind enough to have surgery. The insurance company wouldnt pay for it. He told me to buy a pair of field glasses. They are just straight yellow and it will help with the glare of the lights at night, I hope. Phew. Let`s hope!


Let me go. My bacon is getting cold. I will make sure to come back again. My phone reminds me.

I can use Lingonberry jam instead!

*223* <---from a week ago. 

   There was an amazing sale on hams today at the grocery store. 88 cents per lb for butt or shank. I bought two. A butt for today. A butt for Christmas. They were $7 and $8. So the kitchen smells like ham. I forgot to pick up cloves but that is okay. I didn't have anymore grapefruit jam to use as a glaze so I used lingonberry. I have a pot of greens that were in the freezer. Salad and green beans will round it out. Mmmm. Smells goooood!

  I had a bunch of stuff written out to talk about. But something has been tugging at me that I gotta talk about. I think I might try to go back to work. I want to give it a try. I will have safeguards in place. I could get training and help getting a job. If it doesn't work out, at least I tried.I just feel like I have to try to contribute. Get out there and earn. Be around other people. Every one is moving on and I just sit here. Yes, I am not a well person. I have limitations. But..there is the but again, I want to see what my options are. If you have thoughts, let me know.

    I do have to wait until after I have my cataracts done. I see the eye surgeon this coming week for that. I am really scared to have it done but it has become necessary. I am told it is like lasik surgery. You get one done and six weeks later, you get the other one done. I have to get over my fear and just do it.

 I did two things on Thursday that I have been dreading. I paid off and cancelled our gym memberships. I was worried I was gonna owe ALOT (long story) but it was very very little. I was thrilled. So then I went to a salon and got a proper haircut. It has been ages! It felt good. I used to go to the salon my entire childhood thru till I had the girls. Then it was just cheaper to do it myself . I was a beauty school drop out after all. It is past my collar bones with some layers. The curl has come back. I like long hair but it was time for a bit of a change. There is a pic in my IG.

  

Look at this amazing find! I trash picked this rocking chair! I pulled everything out of the jeep on the street and fit it inside and brought her home. I have it set up in the livingroom now. It will go upstairs in my bedroom. I have rubbed furniture oil all over it and it smells good. Did I do good?? I think I did. 

This is blurry but that is okay. You can still see it. One of my first blog posts was called Caffeine, nicotine, and dexedrine. <--you can read it here. I always said that I needed this tattooed on me. Well, I finally did it with a added semi colon for good measure. I forgot to share that. I have had it for about a month. Please note my weight in that post and my weight in this post. Hells yeah!

 Okay, so that is it for this segment. Oh! Happy October 1st. Did you say your Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit? I did. Always do. I hope you have a great weekend and let`s hope Hurricane Matthew stays the hell away!