C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 163

Spookily quiet in here.

No word from a lot of you for a while.

Hello? Hello? What's everyone up to?

First snow!

…just a white frosting.

But I realized last night I forgot to open the gate valve and drain the 30 gallons in the waterfall tank (pumped in from the pond continuously until pump shutdown) which is now standing water, and which needs to be emptied. I'll remember to do that today!

Gaining on it, slowly, with the skating…

Maneuvers take more energy than plain-skating—things like 3-turns and crossovers and backwards skating…and I'm still taking it slow, coming back to the ice. I'm limiting myself to about 30 minutes a go, to avoid straining something. And there are a few things I hadn't counted on—one of which is that I've dropped about 30 lbs since I bought these skates (which of course are basically the boots, with blades), and I'm dropping in boot size. Re-heating (heat-molding) the boots will help; maybe wearing socks. Maybe shifting the lacing a bit. But you have to lace snugly, and being able to move your feet around in the boots is not a good thing.

But—I did several perfectly secure crossover steps, and found my 'under' foot behaving automatically, going underneath properly, which is a good thing. I was incredibly shaky last week, and this week have my left and right 3-turns away from the wall: the right foot is better than the left, but hey, I'm working on the left. Most of that problem was not getting the offside shoulder back as I'm skating into the turn…ie, leaning forward or letting that shoulder go forward will blow it. Getting that shoulder back and the whole neck-and-shoulders area primly upright means you won't lean, and that means you keep your balance on the ice. If you're centered over your skates with knees bent, you do not fall down.

I'm working on my left foot in general, to get it to behave and bite-in the way it should. Ice was great today.

We're trying to get back in condition. It's one thing doing yard work, but this is lower-body type work, and fine control, and muscles just have to remember what they need to do.

Meanwhile snow is on the way. It'll rain tonight, and then the snow starts, and stays, and stays. Gotta get the snow boots out of the closet.

heckuva windstorm last night…

I think the strongest winds since we've been in the Pacific NW. Some gusts to 60 mph.

I'd thought maybe they wouldn't happen—because it had started to rain, and I thought the front might have piffled. But then…

We got a weather warning on telly, and I decided to head out in muffies and night-robe to bring in the gulls sculpture and the little Chinese bridge thingie, and then realized the patio furniture needed to be rearranged. By the time I got inside, somewhat soppy soaked about the edges, the wind had started to blow.

It blew over Jane's beloved yard swing—again. We're going to have to put in some new canopy support rods. But this time it blew the very heavy swing seat completely to the street, right up by the curb. I saw it, and Jane and I in robes and muffies went out into the dark and the storm to gather up the swing seat and carry it (with one argument with a rosebush and some bloodshed) along the somewhat obstructed path to the side of the house, where it sits.

The big green trashcan blew over, and lies there this morning. We're going to need to go out and pick up the swing frame and set it to rights. We think it blew over because of the oscillations of the heavy swing seat, but I'm planning how I can secure those swing frame feet to the ground, maybe tying them to four big rocks, or driving in modern tent stakes, which in this stony soil will take more mallet than we own, or going so far as to try to drive 4 pieces of rebar down into the soil. I think modern grippy tent pegs might be the sanest solution.

Don't click on the kitteh on Facebook—

—Closed Circle is taking a big financial gamble, actually running an ad for Blood Red Moon on Facebook, so if you do see it, you can 'like' it, but please edon't click on it, so that we don't get charged for people who already know where we are! We assure you, the click only takes you to Closed Circle's BRM page! Every click costs us, but it's a limited run (very) and we hope it will bring the site new friends!

Monday, and this time—back on the ice.

Trying to get up earlier in the day so I have time to get my day's writing mostly done before we go skating.

I'm going to have to replace my coffeemaker: it's decided not to dispense coffee, and I've tried every way to clean it I can think of. No joy. I love these Hamilton-Beach Coffee Stations, which have no pot—they just pour it straight into the cup.

I thought about one of those single-cup magic coffee devices, but when I did the math and figured they cost 700.00 a year to supply, versus 300.00 for coffee, in a 10 cup a day habit (and I drink more than that sometimes), I figure I can make it by the pot. It's really amazing how much a 'convenience' can cost you in a year. And besides, some of those pre-done coffees are not innocent of sugar. That's a way to blow your diet and pay 400 dollars for the privilege.

I can name a number of things I'd rather, than that.

I've been convinced it's Monday all morning!

I got ready to go skating—and it's Sunday!

Silly me!

The diet: Jane and I both are almost into exciting territory.

I'm headed into territory I haven't explored in decades. Jane is headed past a pesky plateau that has stopped her again and again.

Let me give you the gist of it: first of all, we joined the actual South Beach site, at http://www.southbeachdiet.com which gives you recipes and answers questions like Are beans ok in Phase 1, and other things that can torpedo your success. I recommend that. It's also a cheap site, membershipwise.

Secondly the essence of the diet: step 1—you sharply limit carbs AND fat, and totally eliminate starches from your diet. You have 2 snacks, one midmorning, one afternoon, and 3 meals. You basically can have all the protein you want, but must ALSO eat 2 cups of veggies a meal, or the equivalent—eg, you can have V-8 for breakfast. You may not have ANY starch. You get your carbs essentially from the vegetables. [No, I'm not fond of veggies, either, but seeing the scales go down is worth it.]

Step 2: you can have 1 unit of starch and 1 fruit sugar daily, meaning you can have a small apple or banana, and a slice of bread. And a glass of wine. If you gain weight back—back you go to phase 1 to war with your metabolism some more. You continue to lose weight. You moderate, gradually increasing your starch/sugar intake until you find your personal ok-point, and then DON'T exceed it.

Step 3: eat what you like, occasional treats, then back to the approved foods immediately. Do not misbehave. It takes a year or so to acclimate the body to the new weight.

This is the first time in 20 years we have had real hope of getting back to fighting weight. We're feeling good, we love having the allowed desserts every evening, we're fitting into clothes we'd almost despaired of fitting again, and we're not hungry all the time. Can we go out occasionally? Yep—have the steak and salad, a glass of wine, and put the dressing on the side. No desserts, while eating out. Just have the big steak. No potato. Jane and I are resolved to order the big steak, have an extra salad instead of the baked potato, and split the meal. Cheaper.

Anyway, I offer it for any of you who are interested in facing the holidays with a Plan this year. You could get through Thanksgiving with a lot of turkey and the salad, no green bean casserole, no pie, or have it and reform on the following day; and Christmas, well, have a cookie or two, or that slice of pie, then reform and have the ham and a side of green beans.

That's our plan, anyway. We had a binge for Jane's birthday—cream pie and carrot cake, then went immediately back to weight loss. Mind, you can do this now and again and still come out of it on the track for weight loss. You don't have to beat yourself up. Have an Occasion now and again, use some restraint, then come back to center, and it works.

I spent yesterday abed, sleeping mostly.

I'm awake today. We intend to skate, but word is two schools are out and may infest the ice. If the yardape quotient is too high, the lot of us adults may simply head for the pub and have lunch.

11 lbs down…the diet's still going.

I'm losing about 2-3 lbs a week on this diet. Which is good. Now and again we go out, have a drink, try to be at least judicious in what we get. Then get back on the strict diet. Jane's losing at about the same rate, a little slower, but losing. And we have done the whole Nutrisystem, Mediterranean, portion control, Atkins thing—Atkins was the best, but past a certain weight, it wasn't working. So we got with this one.

Those of you who've been following this sage know the story: we do home-cooked South Beach, which is pretty simple in essence: you have, at each meal, a protein, as much as you want, and must-have 2 cups of non-starch veggies. At breakfast, this is a problem, but you can have v-8. Jane opts lately for green beans. For breakfast. But it works. You get two low-carb snacks, involving veggie plus cheese, peanut butter, hummus—but about a tablespoon or so. And you get a dessert after supper, with Splenda.

We end up cheating by skipping snacks, because we get busy. Or because we've had it with the veggies. BUT, we lose.

The program is supposed to include whole grain now, judiciously, maybe one piece of bread. You retreat back to strict induction if you gain a pound. We'll see.

But yay us. By what I've told the program, I've lost 11 lbs, but I actually started heavier than I admitted, by 5 lbs. So it's really about 16. I've dropped 2 points of Body Mass Index, and a full size of clothing. Jane's right with me.