Weigh in Wednesday on Thursday -- STOKED!

I weighed in at 181 today. That makes 11 pounds down total since August 6. And finally past the plateau I've been stuck on (184). That is 11 pounds in 12 weeks. Slightly less than a pound a week, but slow and steady wins the race!

The fast diet has gone very well. I have only missed one fast day since I started. There are plenty of fast days where I just want to cave in around 4pm and have a...something. But that's the point - it's psychological. I just want something. Sometimes I am actually hungry at 4pm, most times I'm just responding to years of habits. But all is good and the number keeps going down.

My BMI was at 30.1, now it is 28.3. This puts me in the merely "overweight" category but out of Obese which is always nice. Again, BMI is not a perfect indicator of health, just another piece of info.

I'm very happy about this continued weight loss. Honestly, the only downside to the FastDiet plan is that I don't cook as much and man, there are so many recipes I want to try!

Thoughts On Harper

We bought an angel food cake and Harper loves it. I give her little chunks to eat and the other day, I swear to god, she shoved a piece in her mouth not unlike Bill Murray in Groundhog Day

(sorry for the ad...)

I actually laughed out loud watching her use her sweet tiny fingers to push the cake in bit by bit.

Harper loves to yell "COCK!" And it's not about chickens.

Let me explain.

We like to play with sidewalk chalk and she hadn't played with in a while so I said, "Do you want to go outside and play with chalk?" "COCK!" she said, over and over. Then we went outside and she kept saying it. "COCK!" "COCK!"

Oh, it's funny.

When I give her bananas for breakfast, I usually cut about 1/4 of the banana off and start to open the peel. Then I hand it to her to do the rest. With a cereal bar, I'll open the package a little and hand it over so she can tear it into. This always makes me feel like I'm on a show about animals in zoos and how we, as the animal keepers, have to provide enrichment to the meals to keep the animals occupied and happy.

Lastly, she's had a cold this week and the other morning at 4am, she was crying and fussy and not sleeping, poor thing. I brought her into bed and nothing would console her. "Do you want milk?" Shakes her head. "Juice?" Shakes her head. "Papa?" Shakes her head. She keeps crying and I'm holding her and say, "What do you want?" And she stops long enough to say "TV?"

Oh dear.

We indulge in a bit of tv now and then, but not at 4am, no matter how cranky she is! But damn it was cute. "TV?"

Hopscotching Harper

Well, I'll be honest. Harper hasn't figured out jumping yet, so "hopping" is a stretch. Let's just say she was "skip-scotching". But she loves it. And man, if I played hopscotch all day, I'd be in good shape. Maybe I could be a personal trainer and do the Hopscotch/Monkey Bars/Chinese Jump Rope work outs...with jacks thrown in for good hand-eye coordination workouts.

And did you know hopscotch goes back to at least the 1600s?

Naps and Books

I love going to get Harper up from her nap and seeing this. Bears and blankets are good, but bears, blankets and books are the BEST! (There is even another book that is out of frame...)

So sleepy...

More Random Los Angeles

Again, under the category, "It Caught My Eye": A front yard garden a few blocks from our house.

Awesome. Where do I get one of those?

Be Prepared

I asked Kurt if he was teaching Harper to siphon gas. He said, "Well, you gotta teach them young to be prepared for the zombie apocalypse." True.

Two additional things:
1) If you are watching The Walking Dead, you'll know Carol would approve.

2) Kurt blew into one end of this hose like a trumpet and the sound came out near Harper and she looked a bit spooked and very nervous. It was kinda funny.

Random Los Angeles

If I were still writing for Blogging LA, I would have posted these under the "it caught my eye" category.

First there was this car - can you see it? Not just camouflage, but digital camouflage!

As you may know, Los Angeles is the land of "put it on the sidewalk, it will be gone in an hour." That's how we got our backyard fireplace and an outdoor table (which we finally retired after 10 years). But this? This seems like a stretch for easy disposal. "Major free safe." Free except for the hospital stay for trying to move it.

I love Los Angeles.

Weigh In Wednesay on Thursday - Maintain

Weighed in today at 183, still down 9 pounds from my starting point, but have been on this plateau for a few weeks. Frustrating, but there it is. I haven't really been doing much to change up the non-fast days, though I have been eating a lot less ice cream as the weather cools off. (Yesterday notwithstanding.)

The fast days are much easer to deal with, though if I time my two meals badly, I get HUNGRY and a little cranky. But it passes. Honestly, there are fast days when I wake up and am relieved to not have to really worry about what I'm eating. It's nice.

 

Funerals Are Important. Funerals Suck.

A friend's stepdad died recently of cancer*. I'm still very sad about this and think of him often, how kind and funny he was, how welcoming and sweet. There was a memorial at my friend's house and I was so glad to attend because I learned so much more about him and met many people who knew and loved him. The stories were funny and there was much laughter amid the tears. The service, the coming together, the shared grief is critical in marking that sad ending.

My dear Great-Auntie Sally died two weeks ago. She was my grandmother's sister-in-law and was 97. 97!! She was sharp as a tack until the very end, though she'd been ready to go for a long time. She missed her husband (my grandmother's brother) who had died about 20 years ago and her beloved son David also died a few years ago. In her will she requested no service. I believe because she was humble and didn't want anyone to make a fuss.

But what I think she didn't realize is, the service is not for her. My stepdad Jack made the same request and we didn't have anything official for him. But neighbors and good friends did have a cocktail party to celebrate Jack, just a small gathering of Spreckelsville people who knew him, and that was really good.

Just as other milestones in life have markers -- school graduations, bar/bat mitzvahs, first communions, weddings, baby showers -- and celebrate the next step, so too should death. I understand that funerals can be brutal simply because (duh) someone died. But trust me, I have some experience with this, it is really important to have a funeral. People need to come together to grieve, to share their sadness, to express their love for the dearly departed. Actually, even if there wasn't love, or if the love was mixed with anger and hate, marking that passing is still important, maybe even more so in that case.

My dear friend Jai died ten years ago (horribly and unexpectedly) and I couldn't make it to her funeral. I will always regret not being able to go there and be with her family and friends, all of us in pieces about her loss.

So, do me and your family and loved ones a favor. Make it clear that you want a funeral. Hell, get specific! Make it a color theme, request specific music, buy yourself a KISS casket ahead of time, whatever! Just allow for all who remain to celebrate you because when you die, people are going to be distraught and unsure what to do if there aren't any instructions. People need instructions, even just a few clues would be nice. (That eye roll I just made was actually me glaring at my sister in heaven...)

Funerals suck. No one wants to go. But you have to. Someone you love (or at least liked very very much) has died and you need to mark that sucky suck sucky occasion.

 

*Cancer can SUCK IT, by the way.