South Beach: Back to Phase 1, and general update

So, I'm back to phase one of the south beach. I've even put a little back on over the past few weeks and I'm disappointed. Again.

I have a new walking partner until she gets a job, and I'll be making another doctor's appointment after the kids get back into school. It just seems to be utterly ridiculous that the addition of just one or two servings of carbs should halt or negate my weight loss. The book says to work your way up to five or six servings as long as it's reasonable veggies, whole grain breads, and all refined flours and sugars are avoided.

I just don't know what to do anymore. One of these days I'll scrape together my pennies and buy some sort of exercise machine off of Craig'slist, but my big hangup there is how to transport and then get it into my home when my partner is gimpy. If I were feeling optimistic, I'd just call around and see if a youth in the ward wouldn't mind earning a stack of cookies for helping me out.

School is going well. I finished my first class in half the time allotted. My next class starts in mid-August. It's been nice to take a break. My home is now back in order. I just need to find a good storage solution for my food storage which now overflows the craft room and Raul. We've been putting what money we can into mid- to long term food storage against the coming months. Man's school starts soon, along with a student job (IT support) that he landed earlier this week. We're just going to take it one month at a time and hope that my certificate can land me a decent job. If not, it's back to school , most likely at Pueblo Community College which is 40 mins away. There's nothing local that has got medical degrees, and Pueblo has an embarrassment of them and a surprisingly large campus for a community college.

Areas of study, (note that they offer seven of the degrees I've considered over the past few years) and a pic of the campus.

Man has kept himself busy by teaching himself some of the basics of game creation. He's keeping a bit of a record over here. Since his short job search didn't go well and ended with his decision to return to school, he's been scouring the internet for resources on learning how to code, develop graphics, and generally put together a fairly ambitious game. He's going to use it as his master's project and hopes to sell it later on. I have to admit that it looks like a fun game and I hope it works out for him.

No kids in public

 Link to an article about banning kids from some public places.


I can understand not wanting disruptive behavior from children in certain venues. Heck, it raises the hair on the back of my neck to hear a kid who just won't quit when all I want to do is shop (code in my house for getting out because my ears are tired of bored/tired/hungry/miserable kids). My kids have been guilty of vociferous transgression in public. In fact, I've waited in line for 15 mins at a Walmart and still been two people back from the register when they've started to whine or cry. I've waited it out, letting the kid cry because my cupboards at home were bare and I couldn't afford to just leave the cart and order a pizza. 


But why begin a culture that is exclusive of children? Families with kids go out to eat fairly often, and kid portions are restaurants are dismal. I'm sure that the $3.50 we paid for our daughter's grilled cheese and small pile of French fries yesterday was about seven times the amount of money the restaurant paid for those ingredients. On the other hand, an adult who orders a full spread is obviously putting more money into restaurant pockets than my tots are. Perhaps these venues are trying to keep the most profitable customers happy. 


On the other hand, there is nowhere an airplane passenger can go to escape a child who doesn't understand how to relieve pressure in their ears. A DINK (dual income, no kids) can simply go to a fancier restaurant to avoid brats. If you go to Chick-fil-a, there will be children. But do they have the right to banish children from a portion of an aircraft when they themselves can simply apply a pair of cheap ear plugs or noise cancelling earbuds and achieve quick peace? 


I don't know of many parents who can afford first class plane tickets in the first place. And I can understand how some restaurants simply aren't appropriate for the little ones, specifically black tie or sports bars. On the other hand, why Whole Foods?? Why on earth would I continue to shop at a store where I must memorize and respect exclusive rules when my life is already laden with obligations? I have a hard enough time remembering that Costco closes early on Saturday nights (shame on them, as a Costco trip happens to make a fine date for us old parents) without keeping a whole list of store hours that I might reasonably observe on my person at all times lest I embarrass myself by entering, with a child, during the wrong business hours.

 My least favorite comment on the article is as follows:

If you dont know how to raise a child then don't have them.

Ha! As if anyone on this planet has any idea on how to raise a child from scratch before actually having one and raising it. The only people who seem to do well with this from the get go either have degrees in child development or a passel of younger siblings they were forced to raise. I can understand that those who don't know how to drive a car shouldn't own one, but what about houses? In owning one, you sort of learn as you go and mistakes will be made. There aren't classes on how to maintain a home, are there? If so, I want to take one as soon as possible. But even classes on child rearing can't possibly prepare you for the day Little Johnny learns that screaming in public makes mommy crazy, and the fact that it takes a lot (a LOT) of training to get some of them to behave.


I dunno. I writing this in a sort of fatigued haze. I know I feel outrage, especially because kids are the future of our species and treating them like an inconvenience is kind of churlish. But, on the other hand, I hate it when I have to listen to kids scream.


What do you think?

Tamale pie

A new recipe over on the recipe blog:

Linky.

I'm doing the "I'd rather not cook tonight but I'm too cheap to order out so what's fast and easy and bland enough that the kids won't whine about it oh I think I've found something" dance.

LOTR -- again

A new installment in the LOTR saga, The Quest To Sort This Tripe Out.

When we last left our heroes, I was begging for a refund for a mis-sent box of LOTR so I could order one for the right address. The idea was that the people at the old address would refuse the order, it would get sent back and reshelved, and all would be right in the world.

I got my refund and then used that money to order a new LOTR. As far as I knew, all was as it should be.

Then my original order came in the mail today. I was surprised, to say the least. It managed to get itself forwarded at no cost to myself (a surprise since a different package that has toiled the same dark path was forwarded to me to the tune of $10).

So, I wrote to Amazon again, asking if I might mail them the wayward LOTR so I wouldn't be cheating them out of $XX.XX, especially since they had been so kind to me through customer care in the past (and, well, I try to be honest in all my dealings).

Then I got this email this afternoon:

Hello,

I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused.

I've requested a refund of $XX.XX for the full amount of this shipment, including shipping, if any. You'll see the refund to your MasterCard in the next 2-3 business days.

You can check on your refund by viewing the order in Your Account here:  (linky in the email)

From your e-mail message, I understand that you've received the Lotrbree [which was my frenetic abbreviation, which the poor, non-English speaking CSR didn't bother to correctly capitalize] package that we already issued a refund. However, no need to concern as a goodwill gesture, there is no need to return the item you received.

Thanks again for your feedback.


AAAACK!!!!  So, they've successfully issued a refund for the second purchase, meaning I now have two copies of Lord of the Rings Blu-ray Extended Edition (LOTRBrEE, pronounced Loe-tar-bree) and I've functionally gotten them both for free.  I think. They wrote to let me know that the refund was successfully processed, but nothing has cleared my bank account yet.

What do you think??? Should I chase this even more to make it all right, or just enjoy some Amazon good will? I'm so confused.

South Beach, Month 1

Well, still only down 13 pounds. It seems that as soon as I added any carbs at all that my weight loss completely stalled. After the first two weeks, you're supposed to add in one serving of carbs (of course as unrefined as possible, and you may be astonished at how small real servings are) which I did. Now, I will admit that I had a piece of Dave's birthday cake, but other than that I've been pretty good. The rice I've been eating is a brown/wild blend mixed with half quinoa, and I only eat it once or twice a week. Other than that, I've had meatballs made with 9 grain breadcrumbs (a mere fraction of the meatball, and yet it must be considered) and some barbecue sauce here and there (which I know has sugar, but in most cases it was the only carb I ate all day), but it's still pretty disappointing to so completely plateau despite the fact that pasta, ice cream, and white rice and I havn't been on speaking terms for a month.

My next step is to exercise more while still allowing myself one serving of carbs a day. The only problem is that I'm limited to things in the home while the kids are still home for the summer, or to go biking before Man goes to work. My track record of waking up when I don't really have to is kind of dismal. (sigh)

On the other hand, every single unit in my online class discusses a single organ system, and each organ system has discussed the impact diabetes has on it in bold detail. My most recent unit was on the sensory aspects of organ systems, and diabetic retinopathy was particularly poignant. So, if that doesn't get me biking I don't know what will.

But off I go to the cannery to pick up a home canning unit. I'm stashing things that the cannery doesn't offer, like basmati rice, quinoa, anasazi beans, sugar that's actually much cheaper by the pound, and egg noodles. My 90 food supply menus need a massive overhaul due to my new (and most despised) dietary concerns, so I can't put too much away until that gets done.

Overall, I'm most frustrated with this body and its strong tendency toward diabetic traits. I'm angry that I can work so hard for such slight results. I'm tempted to go to my doctor and demand metformin to at least get me to a normal weight range, which is still 50 heavy pounds away. I'm tempted to once again use Alli but the speed at which I regained all of the weight lost in that manner was a very bitter experience.

So, this week, biking and maybe a nod to Jillian Michaels and her 30 Day Shred.

my first grey hair

Well, the first one I know of. It came as a bit of a shock, and with good timing: next week is my 29th birthday. I hope silver hair makes me look distinguished.

What did I do with my first grey hair? Yanked it, of course. Given how stressful this past decade has been I'm actually surprised not to see one sooner. Ignore how dusty my desk looks. I just didn't know how to take a picture of a single hair in dim conditions.