Daily Food Diary – Day 144 of 365

It is 144 Days since I began posting my Daily Food Diary.   144 Days without one miss! That says a lot for my tenacity – or the amount of free time I have in retirement. 

Yesterday was relatively eventful, as our days go. 

We had a hearty breakfast and set out for a walk with Molly.  Dan’s hips were done after a few blocks, but Molly and I persevered on our own.  Other than a couple of dog encounters that set Molly off a bit, it went well.  She was on a mission to cruise and to stop and sniff every blade of grass, tree, and sign that we passed.   One of these days, I will go head over tea kettle when she makes a sudden stop right in front of me.   Fortunately, yesterday was not the day.

When we got home, I did my workout, did my sinus rinse and meds,  put away the groceries Dan brought home, and had a short rest before heading outdoors.

Basil to keep flies and mosquitos away
Dan planted the rhubarb plant he bought me a few days ago

After minimal effort to help Dan put the covers on our gazebo, I spent a couple of hours transplanting seedlings into planters around the yard.   I could have done a few more but we had unexpected (but ALWAYS WELCOME) company arrive.

Molly’s favourite human, granddaughter Genie,  stopped by with an elephant and a few lady bugs (for Grandpa & I) and a buffalo ear (for Molly).

I didn’t get a chance to get a pic of the buffalo ear. 😂

Genie was able to stay for a couple of hours so we had a really nice lengthy chat.  She played an audio file of her and a  friend working on a song that they are co-creating.  Genie has always had a nice voice and has always loved to sing.  Her and her friend harmonize so perfectly that it is incredible.  I cannot wait for them to finish their song so I can share their work here – and they can start attending open mike events around the city  so they can share it with live audiences. 

We also talked about ongoing  health issues – hers and mine.   A few weeks ago Genie quit eating yeast to see if it was at the root of a lot of her health issues – as it is with her mother and with me.   She has been doing well but realized she wasn’t doing quite well enough, so she decided to avoid processed sugar as well.  That did the trick.  She is looking and feeling great!

It annoys me no end that it took me well over sixty years to figure out that I was poisoning myself with yeast and processed sugar.  (Who knew that I shared my daughter’s allergy to yeast?) But it is heartwarming to see that this discovery led my grandchildren to find their own issues, while young enough to change the course of their entire lives.

Genie with her fiance Alec (who was still at work when Genie came by)

Daily Food Diary – Day 144

Breakfast:

(1) c coffee (2)

(1) tsp olive oil  (40) (.7 grams)

(2) eggs (160) (3 grams)

(2) sl. Ham (27) (.2 grams)

(2) green onions (16)

(1) tortilla cheese wrap (170) (1.5 grams)

(1/8) c shredded cheddar (57) (3 grams)

Snacks:

(48) oz water

(1) pear (103)

(20) raspberries (20)

(15) tortilla chips (191)(1.4 grams)

(1) Clamato Caesar (168)

Supper:

(2) low sodium Top Dogs (180) (5 grams)

(1/2) c chilli (113) (.9 grams)

(2) slices bacon (87) (2.2 grams)

(1/8) c shredded cheese (114) (6 grams)

(1/4) c red onion (15)

(8) ripple chips light salt (116) (1.1 grams)

(8) barbecue chips (86) (.5 grams)

(1) Lemon oatmeal cookie (68) (. 6 grams)

(1) peanut butter, cream cheese cookie (167) (3.5 grams)

Total net calories: 1557

Net calorie goal: 1243 – 1557 = 314 over 👎

Total saturated fats: 26.5 grams

Saturated fats goal: 13.75 👎

Daily Food Diary – Day 51 of 365

It is the 51st day of  recording my Food Diary and posting it here on WordPress.

Better yet, this is the day that our brutal cold snap finally breaks and our temperatures soar up to the freezing point.  It has been the longest coldest February that I can ever remember, but the worst of it is finally behind us.

We do not have any huge plans for today, but I am looking forward to a walk – outside in the fresh air 😊 – with Dan and Molly.  I’m also excited to be going to Home Depot to pick up some garden seeds.  It is finally time to start some seedlings for our garden so we have them to plant once this snow and ice is behind us.   That is weeks away, but I am still excited to take that first step.

Food Diary – Day 51

(1) c coffee (2)

(1) Peach (51)

(1/2) c pineapple

(1) Granola bar (160)

(1) Egg (80)

(3) Slices back bacon (52)

(1) Potato patty (85)

(24) oz water

(1) c Lemon Ginger tea

(1) Homemade oatmeal blueberry muffin            (199)

(5) Licorice allsorts (110)

(12) oz carbonated water

(1) Lean hamburger patty (307)

(1/2) Sliced tomato (6)

(1/4) Red Onion (3)

(1/2) c lettuce (3)

(25) Lay’s Classic Potato Chips(160)

Total Calories: (1262)

That’s it for today.  Take care and have a great day! 💞🤗

July 5th – Health and Fitness Update

Things are pretty much status quo in the ‘Health and Fitness’ department these days.

Health wise, I am doing ok. We have a bit of smoke this week so I am more prone to coughing, but so far no major issues with that.

Fitness wise, I have been doing a half hour Zumba and one hour of dancing (Monday thru Saturday). I spend a few minutes on the speed bag (hit and miss). Monday thru Saturday, I do weight and strength training. I have been adding a few new things the last couple of weeks – push ups, lunges, and lateral lifts.

I have to admit, I have been struggling with my attitude/mindset lately. I’d rather be snacking and napping than getting fit and active. It happens. I just have to push through until my motivation returns. I have come too far to backslide now (and lose all the progress I have made).

Molly relaxing in the shade. I think she’s a bad influence. 🤔

I am still enjoying being yeast free. The longer I stay away from the yeast, the more I can eat other foods that were bothering me – like salad dressings, olives, horseradish, and salsa. Sadly, I cannot say the same for wine. I had a small glass on Sunday and lived to regret it. (At least I lived. 🙄)

I have been spending as much time as possible outside, enjoying the fresh air, and tending to the yard.

I finished cleaning up the sand in our Molly proof garden. I still have the planters to paint.
Dan set out the birdbath, his Toronto Maple Leaf gnome and helped me put up some protection for the beets (that the birds seem to think I plant for them).
Dan keeps the front lawn mowed.
The other side of the front lawn, a couple of flower beds, and the Blue Spruce that grows taller and spreads wider every year.
Our annual Welcome basket of Pansies.

That’s about it for today. Take care and have a great rest of the day! 💞🌞

February 10th – I Was Right!

I am very happy to be in a marriage with my husband Dan. He is a good man. He is a responsible, hard working, intelligent, hilariously funny, caring man. But he has his less attractive qualities. First and foremost, he is annoyingly right way too often when we disagree. This is particularly true of his gut feelings about people and his opinion of the latest gizmos and gadgets. That obviously means that, in these disagreements, I am typically the one who is WRONG. 🥴

Back in May of 2020, I finally had reason to celebrate an infrequent case of righteousness. Today it is time to update my post on ‘lightweight expanding garden hoses‘ and set the record straight.

https://seclusion101withannemarie.com/2020/05/31/i-was-right/

For some time, I had seen advertisements and displays calling me to invest in one of those handi-dandy lightweight hoses with the awesome functional nozzle. Finally, I had the chance to grab an economical model off a shelf in a discount store and manage to skid through the checkout with it before Dan could disuade me.

I brought it home and it was amazing! I loved my new hose. No more struggling with heavy, unyielding, rubber hoses. No more trying to operate lousy spray attachments. And my favourite… no more fighting and losing to our miserable automatic hose retractor. (Supposedly automatic 🤦).

For a good two weeks, I loved my new garden hose. I even dedicated a blog post to it – and happened to mention that I had indeed been right for once.

Then it happened. My wonderful hose sprung a little pinhole leak – and another – and another, until it resembled one of those sprinkler hoses.

This was at a time when my health was feeble at best. Dan, being the good man that he is, decided we should increase the odds for success and went out to buy me a much better quality, much pricier lightweight expanding garden hose. It lasted quite some time before Dan decided to use it to top up the pool one day. He was keeping an eye on it, when he noticed it was expanding in one concentrated area – much like a water balloon. He ran to shut off the water, but he did not run fast enough. The balloon burst. 🙄

At this time, I should have taken a cue from Genie…

Dan was able to shorten the hose, re-attach the spray nozzle and things went well for a few more weeks. Then the sprinkles started, became leaks, became larger leaks, until it lost all control of itself and caused a flood situation on the sidewalk and into our basement.

So.. that is that. Update on the lightweight expandable garden hose and my premature celebration… I was WRONG. 😧

Watering our front acre of lawn may not be particularly doable with a watering can, so obviously it is back to heavy, unco-operative rubber hoses. At least my health is considerably better now, so it will be more of an inconvenience than an all out crisis.

And I can almost always open jars with my handi-dandy jar openers – without dumping the contents of the jar down my shirt. So, I was RIGHT about these gadgets. 😊

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day! 💞

February 8th – Spring Update

My update today will no doubt be one of favourites to do as it the subject is such a joy to me. On March of 2020, I put together a collection of my favourite spring photos to celebrate the kickoff of my favourite season.

https://seclusion101withannemarie.com/2020/03/20/spring-2020/

This post was written on the last day that I was gainfully employed. Much has changed in the past two years, much has changed for the better, and one of the best changes has been the amount of time that I now have to enjoy and appreciate SPRING.

For my update to this post, I add photos of some of the special springtime moments that I have had the privilege of enjoying over the past couple of years.

Spring Cleaning
Out in the sunshine with Kat
April showers bring May flowers 🌸
Grandpa’s Bleeding Heart
A new bath for our feathered friends 🐦
Spring seedlings 🌿
Walking the paths in Patricia Park 🚶

All heartwarming memories of warm spring days. I am so fortunate that events conspired to move up my retirement plans. I love all of the opportunities that retirement has brought – but I particularly appreciate these days with yet another spring on the horizon. 🌞

That is it for today. Take care and have a great day!

March On!

We have moved into March and life gets better every day!

Sunshine and warmer temps!

Dan and I are starting a new month of workouts. I lost a grand total of 1 1/2 pounds in February.

This month we are going to get seriously focussed on our eating habits.

No more brownies with cream cheese icing😢

My little seedlings are breaking ground. I can hardly wait until I can get them out in our garden. 🌱

Have a great month! & Stay safe💞

Anticipation

Our reality today remains to be one of ice and snow and freezing temperatures.  We are supposed to reach a mighty minus 18 Celcius today – an improvement, but still frigid for sure!

Fortunately, I am retired!  I can stay indoors, work out with my husband, and anticipate the coming of spring.  I even started seeding bedding plants this week. 💐🍅🥗

I started tomatoes, peppers and flowers!
Dan helped me 🤔

It is a waste of life to spend time worrying about the future and what it may bring, but in the frozen north  anticipating spring and preparing for its arrival is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

Keep safe & stay warm 🌤️

Learning to Retire

Before I retired, I was determined not to waste the best years of my life by sitting in front of a television, letting my life slip away…    I have been retired for three months now.

During my first few weeks of my retirement, I cleaned and polished every nook and cranny of our house.  Then I started to cook and bake, which of course messed up the house, so I had to clean and polish all the more. 🤷

Neat and tidy 😉

I could see this becoming a losing battle, so I backed off on the cooking and started to focus on my dog.  I was walking her, bathing her and grooming her.   And there was dog hair and wet dog smell everywhere!  Which meant more house cleaning and polishing.  🙄

My dog, Kat

Finally spring arrived and I was able to get out in the yard – with my dog!   I tidied up the yard, planted plants, and painted flower beds.  Kat was at my side, in the house, back out, back in.  There was now pine needles, sand, leaves and muddy pawprints throughout the house.   I cleaned up the house.  Polish – not so much😒

Our garden area 🌿

With spring planting behind us, I am looking at doing a couple of small renovation projects and getting back into a few hobbies I once enjoyed.   I have a sneaking suspicion that renovations and hobbies are going to circle right back to more housecleaning. 😟

Maybe  I should just rethink my original retirement plan, curl up on the couch with my dog and check out some daytime television.  😉

That’s NOT happening!

Wishing everyone, retired or not, a great day🌞