SueWorks

Tracking

Weight Watchers is all about the tracking.  I'm sure this is substantiated by years and years of research, but to get to the meat of the matter:  If you write down everything you eat, you will eventually make better choices about what you do put in your mouth.  A few years ago I lost 20 pounds tracking my food, and exercising, and making better choices overall.  Today I am back to tracking and to planning. 

It's baby steps at first.  I'm eating all prepared, or take out foods.  All are within my level of consumption, though I could eat more fruits and veggies.  It's steps, right!?!  Take the first step and the rest will follow.  A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.  Today's steps are at Jack in the Box (yes you can make good choices there) and at Subway (forgo the cheese, it's not worth it.)

Lactose Free

I had lactose free milk.  I love milk, truly, madly, deeply love milk.  I like it along but I am enamored of it with something sweet, and cherry chocolate.  Anyway, today I went to our cafeteria and wanted to eat something light, as it was already 1:30 and I hadn't eaten anything all day.  Oh, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money.  My desk drawer is supplied with Kashi Go Lean Crunch, a yummy, yummy high protein cereal.  I do not eat cereal with out milk or yogurt, some people enjoy it, not me.  So I figured all I needed was skim milk.  Well, cafeterias being what they are, the only fat free milk was lactose free.  I suspected it would taste poorly, it was fine with cereal and I think I tasted a hint of something when it was alone.  I'm sure that was my overactive imagination at play.

Here is some information on lactose intolerance.  Do you think lactose intolerance can make you fat?

Concerns about Lactose Intolerance

Someone with lactose intolerance has trouble digesting lactose, the natural sugar found in dairy foods. Symptoms of lactose intolerance include stomach pain, diarrhea, bloating, and gas.

The best way for someone with lactose intolerance to get the health benefits of milk is to choose lactose-free milk and milk products. There are also a variety of pills and drops, which are available without a prescription, that help people digest lactose.

And, even if your child has problems digesting lactose, he or she can probably still eat or drink:

• 8 fluid ounces (1 cup) of low-fat or fat-free milk taken with meals
• Low-fat or fat-free yogurt or cheese
• Low-fat or fat-free milk poured on hot or cold cereal

People with lactose intolerance can also get some of their needed calcium from dark green, leafy vegetables, such as spinach, broccoli, and bok choy.

Calcium supplements also provide an alternative way of getting calcium.

Foods with calcium added are also an option. Check the ingredient list for added calcium in:

• Tofu (with added calcium sulfate)
• Calcium-fortified orange juice
• Soy beverages with added calcium
• Calcium-fortified breakfast cereals or breads

Lactose intolerance is not common among children. However, if your children have problems with lactose, talk to their health care provider.

For more info, go here.

Mail Order Trickery

The people who photograph for mail order and other online catalogs must be witches or geniuses.  I know I was weak but they looked so nice on the size 4, five foot ten model.  When they got to my door they were more brown that I had ever imagined and much too long and much to wide.  So, they were perfectly wide enough for my fanny just too wide for my heart.

You may know that I'm not a brown wearing person, because I wear all the brown I need in my skin tone.  If I add just a touch more I end up looking like a jaundiced daisy.  Which if you're wondering, is not the best thing to look like.

Here they are, and they are going back:

Shellac the Food

I swear I'm not making this up.  Delta Burke was on a talk show, years ago, and she said she was a great saver of mementos and such.  She described shellacking food items to preserve them.  Not kidding, I actually heard this come out of someones mouth. 

Do you think it would work?

Today I went to a lunch where special cookies were served.  I noticed one person taste the cookie, saw a quick grimace followed by a discreet lean to the waste basket.  Honestly, the cookie is cute.  It's a memento, just not tasty.  I want to shellac it, which just might improve the taste!  Oh, what is shellac?

In Remembrance

A few days ago I wrote about Richard.  There's more.  The eulogy is particularly touching.

In My Own Skin

My next blog skill to learn is how to create categories.  This one will be filed under, "self reflection" or some Jungian phrase that means figuring out who you really are.  It's all for you, the reader.  If I begin to repeat a topic I can quickly scan the blog to see just how redundant I am being.  The most likely situation is that I will continue to write.

I feel, more often than not, that I am pretending to be something or someone.  As a small example, when I put pantyhose on most times I think I'm putting on a costume.  I have roses on my desk top and I wonder if I'm doing it for me or for someone else.  A hours ago, their scent exploded in the room.  I wonder where it went.  That was an aside. 

I picture myself ideally, wearing a capelike coat rushing down a large concourse.  Why I am in a concourse?  I don't know.  Where do concourses live, other than airports?  I do not know.  Why a cape?  I'm not superman.  Who knows!?!  But this is how I see myself and I don't ever look like that.

So oh am I?  Why am I asking the web?  Pumpkin likes to comment that I'm brown on the outside but not on the inside.  I think I'm just as brown as a Sue can be, both on the inside and the outside.  But I wonder if I'm really being me.

Practice What You Preach

I get paid to be an adult educator.  In 2005 I slacked off being educated.  I went to a conference for a few days.  I also took a class on a profile instrument but I don't think I really applied myself and learned something extra special, new.  You need to learn something new, extra special every day.

Pumpkin likes to tell how his father would ask, "Boy, what did you learn today?" 

                                  Girl, what did you learn today?

What We Miss

We "know" so many people in our lives.  The come in and out like the breeze almost.  We meet friends of friends or family of friends.  We nod politely but our focus is on the friend. 

I met Linda along with Holly and Laurie in 2000.  As people over 30 at a dot.com, we instantly found each other.  Throughout the years I also met spouses, but I didn't know them.  I know stories about them.  I know how they communicate and don't communicate with their wives.  But I also know that these great women have wonderful, great extraordinary husbands. 

Yesterday Linda lost hers.  After a long battle with lymphoma, Richard past.  I didn't know him but I observed him being rather quiet, polite, generally a nice guy.  I also know that he raised three great children, helped his own mother tremendously and was deeply loved by Linda.  I'm so sorry for Linda that I have I have no words.  Please read his story.

The Place of Me

I feel I need to post something positive but nothing is coming out.  Do I use too much "I"?  I'm too self-referencing.  I need to be able to draw other people out.  Maybe this is the first resolution for the new year?  You have until the end of the month to make them right?

Happy Birthday to Me

On January 8 I will be another year old.  Elvis, had he overcome drugs, would be 71.  David Bowie will celebrate 59 years of living.  And Stephen W. Hawking is 63 years young, rolling along.  Butterfly McQueen would still "know nothin' bout birthin'" babies at 95.  I just learned that Galileo died on this day, in 1642.  Interesting?

Before this post, I washed my face with wrinkle care, blemish be gone cleanser.  Will it ever end!?! 

Spikey is about 100 in kitty years.  I've been avoiding the vet.  She had blood tests run and I'm sure the results are not splendid.  She's on my lap now, leaving even more kitty-scent on my mouse pad.

Well back to the birthday.  We will have lots of cake, too much Italian food and I will wonder, "is this all there is?"  I will hunt for more quarters for my quarter collection.  Ironically, West Virginia is the most recently released quarter.  And I'm doing something new on Saturday.  We're headed to a bar mitzvah.  I'm debating the need to wear pantyhose.  I think I have to since Craig will be in a tie. 

Here's Skippy and I in the Pacific Ocean.  Craig shot the Australian photographer.

A bonus, Craig, Paula and I enjoying Waimea Canyon on Kauai.