My 2021 Challenge

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Beverley
Posts: 553
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2020 11:33 am

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by Beverley »

Janet, it sounds like you are eating quite a bit less and have been for awhile. So my question is have you lost any weight from that and how is your diabetes? Ii have been over time trying to eat less because i just feel better when I do. I have not really lost any weight and I think a problem for me might be the insulin resistance. I will keep chipping away at buying and eating less because I would really like to pay my house off in the next couple of years. My LTC insurance is going up a lot but I was able to cut quite a few expenses to cover that. I paid off my van so that money is going toward the mortgage. My yard duty pay is going towards home maintenance. I too want to keep living the debt free life.

Anyway let me know how the eating less is going weight wise. I always need help with that.

Bev
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Beverley wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:14 pm Janet, it sounds like you are eating quite a bit less and have been for awhile. So my question is have you lost any weight from that and how is your diabetes? Ii have been over time trying to eat less because i just feel better when I do. I have not really lost any weight and I think a problem for me might be the insulin resistance. I will keep chipping away at buying and eating less because I would really like to pay my house off in the next couple of years. My LTC insurance is going up a lot but I was able to cut quite a few expenses to cover that. I paid off my van so that money is going toward the mortgage. My yard duty pay is going towards home maintenance. I too want to keep living the debt free life.

Anyway let me know how the eating less is going weight wise. I always need help with that.

Bev
Bev I am loosing weight slowly and my cholesterol and triglycerides are doing much better. My A1c for diabetes is down to 6.5. My nurse practitioner and my retina eye Dr were thrilled with my A1c. Although it usually is around 6.5 to 6.3 it had gone up to 7. during the initial phase of the pandemic because I could not find the right kind of foods for my diabetes and I had allowed my food supply to get too low. My NP said prior to my last testing I was at a level 7 for the chance of having a heart attack and now down to a 5. She said," whatever you are doing keep it up."

Right now I am trying to eat less carbs but I have a serious addiction to carbs.. Hello my name is Janet and I am a carboholic.. lol. Not sure what you are eating but I threw the diabetic diet to the curb. The diabetic nurse told me not to exceed 45 carbs per meal. However that still kept my blood sugar too high due to the fact I am gluten intolerant and gluten free breads and things along that line are high glycemic foods. My NP told me to follow a low carb diet but at the same time I only have one kidney that is functional and if I eat too much protein I start to have severe pain in my left kidney. I am trying to just eat healthy whole foods. No manufactured foods from a box or frozen prepared foods from the freezer. Although I do eat some premade things depending on what they are and only once in a while not on a consistent basis. I use to weight 250lbs now down to 188. Of course this has taken me years to get here. I have been going back and forth between 197 and 190 for years. However about a month ago I went to 188lbs and now goes back and forth between 188 and 192.

I have never been one to eat a lot. I was and I am a junk food junky. I do eat things like pork rinds for snacking. I am not wild about them but a few satisfies my need for something crunchy. I am having to make myself eat a snack around 9:00 PM to prevent the pre-dawn hormonal rush that diabetics get. I am not interested in anything but bought some turkey sticks to try at 9:00 PM. They are like Slim Jim's but a healthy version. The thing is I keep forgetting to eat them. I have them sent on auto delivery from Amazon with some of my routine things and they are in my kitchen cabinet but out of sight out of mind. I might boil some eggs tomorrow to have on hand for my 9:00 PM snack.

Good idea to roll over your payments from your van to the mortgage. I did something similar when I was paying off 3 credit cards. I can now live comfortably on Soc Sec. Still with the unexpected expenses I had recently it made me aware that I need to go in to frugal overdrive for the next unexpected expense

Good luck with your diabetes and getting your mortgage paid off.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I am having a period of insomnia again. I can only sleep about 2 or 3 hours then I wake up in the middle of the night. I have the windows open in my bedroom and can smell the sweet fragrance of wild honeysuckle. It grows along the edge of my backyard where the grass meets the thick woods behind my house. If I look close enough I can see fireflies twinkling in the dark. They are almost magical twinkling in the dense woods behind my house.

It is nice and cool this morning but will warm up as the sunrises. We are expecting rain this afternoon so I want to get busy early and finally plant my tomato plants. I have 5 different varieties. I need to haul soil to my deck and bring up some terracotta pots from the patio on the lower level. I will use my car to transport them up the hill. I also have some items from the main level of the house that needs to go down to the basement. We are expecting rain off and on for days so this morning is prime time to do what needs to be done. Normally my family does not do any kind of work on Sundays in order to honor Our Lord's Day but sometimes you have to do work to keep things going. Yesterday I was too busy working on some food prepping ahead and then due to the heat was not up to loading and unloading things in the late afternoon or early evening. Last year gardening in our area was not good due to the cold wet spring. Seems this spring is similar. One of my neighbors has planted his tomatoes twice and had to rip them out due to failure to thrive. I am hoping that by nursing my plants in the house as long as I have that they will finally be able to root and grow in the pots on my deck. I also want to plant some green beans and other things but just depends on the time it takes me to set things up before the rain starts. The weather dudes said we are not going to have a lot of rain for long periods of time but there will be pockets of off and on rain for the next several days.

When we have weather that is not conducive to growing a good garden or harvest I always think of the pioneers that had to struggle and make do with what they had. Those must have been scary times growing your own food and then the worry when things like a cold wet spring caused their gardens to not thrive. No going to the grocery stores on a weekly basis to buy what they did not have. They struggled on the best way they could. I know years ago my brother use to put in a huge garden and sometimes he had to plant and replant due to weather conditions. Glad I am able to do a little light gardening that is enjoyable and not a necessity.
Janet Alliesmama
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Jackielou
Posts: 13423
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:51 pm

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by Jackielou »

alliesmama4 wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 4:25 am I am having a period of insomnia again. I can only sleep about 2 or 3 hours then I wake up in the middle of the night. I have the windows open in my bedroom and can smell the sweet fragrance of wild honeysuckle. It grows along the edge of my backyard where the grass meets the thick woods behind my house. If I look close enough I can see fireflies twinkling in the dark. They are almost magical twinkling in the dense woods behind my house.

It is nice and cool this morning but will warm up as the sunrises. We are expecting rain this afternoon so I want to get busy early and finally plant my tomato plants. I have 5 different varieties. I need to haul soil to my deck and bring up some terracotta pots from the patio on the lower level. I will use my car to transport them up the hill. I also have some items from the main level of the house that needs to go down to the basement. We are expecting rain off and on for days so this morning is prime time to do what needs to be done. Normally my family does not do any kind of work on Sundays in order to honor Our Lord's Day but sometimes you have to do work to keep things going. Yesterday I was too busy working on some food prepping ahead and then due to the heat was not up to loading and unloading things in the late afternoon or early evening. Last year gardening in our area was not good due to the cold wet spring. Seems this spring is similar. One of my neighbors has planted his tomatoes twice and had to rip them out due to failure to thrive. I am hoping that by nursing my plants in the house as long as I have that they will finally be able to root and grow in the pots on my deck. I also want to plant some green beans and other things but just depends on the time it takes me to set things up before the rain starts. The weather dudes said we are not going to have a lot of rain for long periods of time but there will be pockets of off and on rain for the next several days.

When we have weather that is not conducive to growing a good garden or harvest I always think of the pioneers that had to struggle and make do with what they had. Those must have been scary times growing your own food and then the worry when things like a cold wet spring caused their gardens to not thrive. No going to the grocery stores on a weekly basis to buy what they did not have. They struggled on the best way they could. I know years ago my brother use to put in a huge garden and sometimes he had to plant and replant due to weather conditions. Glad I am able to do a little light gardening that is enjoyable and not a necessity.
Hubby replanted his cucumbers this year. He seems to always have to replant something or other.
Jackie
http://inthelandofthelivingskiesii.blogspot.ca/
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I have had an off day today due to not sleeping well during the night and then feeling so tired I had to take two 45 min naps this morning.


Yesterday I fried an extra sausage pattie and egg for breakfast this morning with plans to make a breakfast sandwich. With my last Walmart curbside pick up I decided to try Walmart's gluten free bread. Even toasted I did not like the texture.. I think it will be made in to French toast one day and the rest saved to make stuffing when I bake some chicken breasts in the near future. Mid morning had the other half of the giant apple from yesterday with some peanut butter. Lunch was tuna fish salad with 3/4 of a large tomato. Here again the taste and texture were awful. Note to self..." do not buy tomatoes until they are in season." I had bought a large tomato to use when I made my version of Arby's turkey and swiss sandwich. The turkey and swiss cheese are gone and had a lot of leftover tomato. Also had a nice dill pickle with my lunch. Dinner was the last of the meatballs (2) with mozzarellas and parmesan cheese and most of the marinara sauce left in a jar. Followed by a small portion of the vanilla yogurt.

Teddi had freshly baked roast pork for his breakfast and dinner. He also had a few baby carrots as snacks. Teddi just does not look like himself or act like himself. He actually looks sad and depressed. I know he had a lot of interruption in his routine with my niece being here but he rarely spent time in his crate for more than a couple of hours. Usually we took him with us or someone stayed home with him. I am making an appointment for his heartworm test this week and will ask the vet her opinion on him. Could be the heat is also bothering him. He has a grooming appointment tomorrow and I will have them check his ears and his skin they all might be giving him problems as well. Poor little guy.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Took Teddi for his grooming appointment this afternoon. They felt his ears were ok. He does have a little bit of a skin problem but at the same time not significant. He has an appointment this week to see his Vet for his heartworm test and rabies shot. They will do an exam to see if they can find something else wrong with him. I will also discuss seeing a pet nutritionist regarding cooking his food at home. The Vet had previously mentioned it as an option. I am interested in doing that but it depends on the location and cost. I have checked my slush fund and have more in it than I realized but not sure how much that kind of service will cost.

Munching through things that I have in the house. Breakfast today was oatmeal with a few walnuts. Finished the last of the tomato and tuna fish salad today.


Spent the morning calling and setting up appoints for various Drs and routine tests. My regular eye Dr is on maternity leave and her replacement is in another city. It would have been a 73.5 mile round trip to see this Dr. No thank you. That is just too far to travel so canceled that appointment and set one up for August in my local city. Also set up a mammogram next week and at the same clinic will be able to see my NP for a B-12 shot. That is a 50 mile round trip but at least I can combine them for the same day at the same clinic. I love living where I do but everything is such a long distance to travel. My aide is allowed to drive me anywhere once a week. So that is good.
Janet Alliesmama
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