It is 147 Days since I began my Daily Food Diary. That is a full 21 Weeks ! 🎉
Yesterday, Dan went golfing at Katepwa, so having completed Molly’s walk and my aerobic workout I was looking at taking a day off.
Such was not the case when granddaughter Genie pedaled up on her bike. 💖😊💖
An older photo of a bike trek to Grandma’s with sister Maddy.
We headed outside to spend some quality time in the garden. At one point, Molly leapt over the strawberry plant in the corner planter to stay close to her favorite human. 🤦
About three hours later, we came back inside. While we continued our visit, Genie painted a couple of little yard ornaments.
I bought the angel one last year as a tribute to our beloved Kat. Genie touched it up to give it a bit more pop. The frog is the one I picked up at the Dollar Store last week.
Genie stayed until Grandpa got back from golf, then headed home before it got dark.
We had a quick supper and that was a wrap for my day. I forget if I mentioned it in an earlier post, but I have been sleeping like a rock! On multiple days I have been out cold by 8 or 9 pm and sleeping until 5:30 am (which is now Molly’s time to start our day)!
It’s hard to lay around once Molly decides it is time to get up.
Daily Food Diary – Day 147
Breakfast:
(1) coffee (2)
(3) 4″ pancakes (259) (2.4 grams)
(1) tbsp corn oil (120) (2 grams)
(3) sausages (405) (21 grams)
(2) tsp butter (69) (4.7 grams)
(3) tbsp Maple Syrup (165)
Supper:
(48) oz water
(1) cheese tortilla wrap (170) (1.5 grams)
(2) Low sodium Top Dogs (180) (5 grams)
(1.5) oz marble cheese (170) (8.5 grams)
(1) tsp olive oil (40) (.7 grams)
(12) Barbecue chips (135) (.8 grams)
(1/5) Red onion (13)
Total net calories: 1473
Net calorie goal: 1243 – 1473 = 230 over 👎
Total Saturated Fats: 46.5 grams
Saturated fats goal: 13.75 👎
WELL! We won’t be having pancakes and sausages again any time soon. 😵
That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day!
Yesterday, Rory returned to work up our garden planters. He helped Dan move one of the new planters to the front yard and Dan levelled it and filled it with fresh dirt. I got flowers planted and helped as required.
Altogether, we accomplished a ton of work, which was only made possible with Rory’s welcome assistance.
Garden planters worked up and topped up with fresh dirt. Our new front yard flower bedThe gazebo ready for patio furniture and another (one of many) planters.
This week I hope to get the rest of the garden in, run to Unique Gardens for plants around the pond, pressure wash the patio furniture and get it in place, get the second new front yard planter in place, and get the lawn trimmed and mowed. A lot of the work will fall on Dan – or require his assistance, but it is all doable. 👍
After, we finished up yesterday, I sat down to enjoy my 2nd alcoholic beverage in two days.
First off, I chose an Absolute Ocean Spray cran-Raspberry vodka premixed drink. I cannot eat dried cranberries. I can drink cranberry tea. Apparently, I cannot drink anything (possibly anything alcoholic?) that contains cranberry juice. My abdomen swole up like a beach ball, pushed my hernia out, and the result was excruciating pain. 🤦
Second, I am not now nor have I ever been, a drinker. I grew up in a home that was generally pretty much dry. Dad had a bottle of Rye around. As he got older, he would take one straight shot on cold morning, before heading out to shovel the walks. Other than that he had a dozen beer – which he passed around on Christmas and Easter. Mom had a bottle of wine to serve with dinner – again on Christmas and Easter. There was a bottle of Lemon Gin that someone left behind after a visit. It lived there as long as I can remember.
As a teenager, I went out drinking. In Saskatchewan that meant heading out to the backroads with a case of beer. If I ever drank half a beer, it didn’t stay down long enough to be memorable. (No doubt due to the yeast content which I had no idea was an issue for me back then).
Throughout my first marriage – seventeen years of unholy matrimony, I seldom had a drink. It might have helped, but I was too busy having babies and raising them, to sit around drinking.
Since I met Dan, I have drank more alcohol – not regularly and not much more. If you rounded up every ounce of alcohol that I have drank in my lifetime, you wouldn’t have enough to keep an alcoholic happy through a long weekend.
Funny story (as in peculiar – it wasn’t really funny)… In 2012 I was in the hospital for a solid month with pneumonia and a fully collapsed lung due to empyema which is an infection outside of the lung. The doctors tried to treat it, drain it, and finally sent me to a cardiac specialist who used clot buster treatments to clear it up.
From the emergency room to the specialist, I saw several doctors. Going over my history, they all said that I am a very heavy drinker. It wasn’t a question and every time I said I wasn’t, I am pretty sure they noted that I was in denial on my permanent health record. 🤦
I finally asked one doctor, point blank, why they all thought I drank and he said because the only people who get empyema are the extremely elderly (I was 57) and those who abuse alcohol.
If I had been aware of my severe intolerance to yeast, I may have steered them in a different direction, but that was not the case. 🤔
143 Days ago I began my mindful eating practice by tracking and posting my Daily Food Diary.3 years and 3 months ago I began my current Health & Fitness Journey.
By far, the most gratifying result of this journey is realizing the incredible difference it has made to my overall strength and stamina. My best days, are those in which I complete a household or yard task that I know would have been difficult, to impossible, for me three years ago.
Yesterday was NOT one of my best days.
Yesterday, it was still too wet outside to have grandson Rory come over to work up our garden planters. But, it was nice out so I went out to start setting up a few planters that I have around the yard.
I started by planting the portulaca that I grow in the planter on the garage wall. (Portulaca is the only thing that survives here.)
I also started cucumbers in two large planters that Dan bought me this week. (They are larger than they look, and mobile enough to be moved around should they need more, or less, sun.
Dan worked up this one planter – around his Bleeding Heart, so I planted strawberries and a couple of little flowers. (Molly, stood by ready to help).
Finally, I decided that I wanted to try some ‘planting bags’ alongside the house. I didn’t want them right on the ground, so I figured the sections of tree trunk that were stacked at the back fence, would make ideal bases for them.
Since Dan has been having painful issues with his shoulders, this was to be a ME project. I do not want him to make the pain in his shoulders worse! The antibiotics and prednisone from my recent bronchitis should be out of my system by now, so I felt GOOD to GO!
I went into the garage to get the furniture dolly. It was at the back of the garage – behind the new planters that Dan has been assembling. I managed to lift it, roll it, and stumble my way through the first planter. When I got to the second planter, Dan took it from me, stopped at the compressor to top up the tires, and handed it back over.
I rolled off into the back yard. There was one section of tree trunk that was sitting on the ground. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I managed to get it on the dolly. I pulled it between the two tables, around the wheel barrow, and off the back yard into the side yard. (There is drop there the height of a railway tie. In fact there is a railway tie there to hold the backyard in place.) With one mighty tug, I got the dolly over the tie. A small bounce knocked the tree trunk off the dolly, but I got it back on, and headed around the corner to the side of the house where Dan helped me to set it in place.
Dan went to the back fence to set the next section of tree trunk on the ground and I repeated the process of getting it to its destination.
The third section was notably heavier. Dan got it to the ground, I picked it up with the dolly and moved it to the railroad tie. I gave one mighty tug and it sat there – up on the backyard level. I was at the side yard level. I got a death grip on that dolly and gave a mightier tug. It bounced down – and bounced right back up to the back yard. I went with it. In an elegant move that only another Martel could relate to, I stumbled around until I was back on my feet. My third attempt was successful.
I got the fourth section across the backyard and over the tie without incident. I didn’t even pretend to help Dan set it in place. By that point, I was just ready to accept defeat.
To add insult to injury, I noticed that between all the recent rain and the returning sunshine, the lawn I worked so hard to mow last weekend needs to be redone. 😢🤦
Daily Food Diary – Day 143
Breakfast:
(1) coffee (2)
(2) classic Eggos (180)
(2) tsp butter (69) (4.7 grams)
(1) tbsp Maple Syrup (55)
(2) sl. Low Sodium ham (104) (1)
Snacks:
(48) oz water
(1) pear (103)
(1) peach (51)
Supper:
(12) air fried chicken wing flats (397) (5.8 grams)
(2) egg rolls (380) (2 grams)
(6) Gyoza (200) (2.5 grams)
(2) tbsp Frank’s extra hot sauce (0)
(1) tbsp Gyoza dipping sauce (15)
Total net calories: 1319
Net calorie goal: 1243 – 1319 = 75 over 👎
Total saturated fats: 13.75 grams
Saturated fats goal: <13.75 grams 👎
That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day. 💞🌞
It is hard to book a day off when one is so comfortably retired, but I think I earned one today. I drove Dan and his friend across the city this morning to catch a bus tour to Dan’s company golf tournament at a small town golf course a couple of hours out of the city. Now Molly and I are free until they get back some time this evening.
It is hard to believe that three and a half months ago, I was feeling so feeble and miserable that I was spending the bulk of my time sitting in my rocking chair, wrapped in a blanket – with a shawl across my shoulders. LOL! 😂 Then, I started wondering how I was ever going to be fit enough to deal with all of the spring work that would come with the change of seasons!
Now here I am! Our garden is in, I paid one last trip to a greenhouse yesterday to get a few more flowers and herbs, the flower beds are planted, and the patios and patio furniture are cleaned off and ready to enjoy. I even mowed the lawn one time. Dan dealt with it this week (as he usually does). Molly has been taught to fetch, been kept reasonably well groomed, and most days are accident free – even when I go out for a bit and leave her locked in the house for a couple of hours.
I am so glad I decided to take action back in February to get myself in shape. 💃
A few photos that I took in the couple of days.
I love the colour of these Petunias that I picked up at Unique Garden Centre yesterday. And the pretty little Pansies I got there as well!Dan planted this strawberry plant in the hanging basket he fixed up for it.Molly guarding some of the tomato plants that I started in early March.A few of the peppers I also started in March.Genie (and her friend Alex) dropped in yesterday to say goodbye before she heads off on her summer adventure today. Molly made sure she got her share of the attention.
So that is about it! We still have a fair amount of work to deal with – maintaining the garden, painting the porch, raking the lawn and dealing with the dandelions, painting planters, and setting up the pool (if we decide to put it up this year). Whatever we decide to do, I know I won’t struggle to do my part. I am good to go and getting fitter every day! 💪😊
Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie 