Sunday, August 10, 2008

Day 2 of Ravelempics


Okay, don't worry, I'm NOT going to post my progress on the Mitered Vest every single day, that would probably get really old fast. But here is Day 2, just to show that I did manage to pick up from Square 1 to make Square 2. In this photo, I picked up the edge for Square 2. Made a mistake at first and picked up going the wrong way, from the left side over - but you MUST pick up from the upper right edge (corner) over toward the underarm edge. There are purposely 6 stitches there that you leave unattached, because that is the underarm area.

If you pick up starting with the left side, as I did at first, your Rows aren't corresponding with the Right/Wrong side of the directions and you have your Square 2 attached with the wrong side of 2 attached to the Right Side of 1. Not a good look. Finally got it going correctly. Whew!

I was so proud of my husband yesterday. When he was young, he always have 20/20 vision. But during the past 5 years, he's grown increasingly in need of longer arms, err you know, he needs reading glasses and can't see fine print worth a darn. In fact, even his distance vision is no longer perfect but is now 20/30. He was getting quite frustrated with having 20 million pairs of readers around the house, car and office and still never having a pair when he needed them. I suggested contacts, but he was resistent to that, because he's hated the thought of touching his eyes.

Yesterday, he bit the bullet and we went to an eye appointment to get him fitted for his very first pair of contacts. He learned how to put them in, take them out, and wear them for several hours yesterday. He has the kind where you have distance reading in your left eye and reading in your right. Just like mine. He loves it. Says it works great. I am so proud of him for trying something new and keeping his mind open about trying new things. Though we're both aging, and he's getting dangerously close to the Big 50, he's still young at heart, and can now finally SEE again. Yay!

On the diet front, I am starting Week 5 of the diet today. I am committed to sticking to this diet for one more week. I promised to do it until August 17th - or in other words for a full 6 weeks. Then at that point, I will be an assessment and decide if I want to continue to stay on this throughout the Fall or try something else. I have to admit that I'm getting a bit frustrated with it. Didn't lose anything last week, but I chalked that up to hormones. Now I still didn't lose again this week. Argghh!!! Though the diet isn't hard, it IS restrictive and takes a lot of preplanning. I still have only lost a total of 8 lbs in 5 weeks. I guess that's pretty good - or at least okay, but I think it's hitting a 2 week plateau that is getting my goat.

Losing weight and getting in shape in middle age is really hell, I'll tell you. It's just not easy. I really need to change my mindset and vamp up my motivation again. Grrrr. I better go buy and cut up more veggies.

Have a good week ahead everyone.

3 comments:

Carol said...

WOW ! ! !
You are going great guns on that. I know this project is going to turn out great. I love the colors of that yarn. Can't wait to see it finished.

ColorJoy LynnH said...

Looks like I'm getting my 3rd set of bifocals/progressives this week or next. The second I hit 40 I needed them, and I'll be 50 in November. That's life. It doesn't bug me, since the rest of my life is pretty darned good finally.

I happen to like how glasses look on me and don't mind wearing them, but finding frames I like is a challenge in the Midwest. I guess I have a citygrrl's aesthetic in a navy-blue and beige sort of town.

My diet is to mostly eat things that are as close to how they were grown as possible, and to be sure not to eat as much as my husband. His portions just plain need to be larger than mine since he's much taller than me.

Also my "diet" is to acknowledge the inner toddler who has temper tantrums. When she wants ice cream, I get a baby cone to appease her. I don't need a sundae or a triple dip, because it's a child-driven impulse.

I've learned to love foods I never loved before, that trying new things deal. I also don't force myself to eat things I truly don't love. Amazingly, the new allergist found that I was allergic to a big handful of things I never really started eating much, they didn't feel right. Go figure.

You'll figure it out. Deprivation does NOT work forever. Balance and acknowledging the need for small rewards seems to be my big trick. That and just plain better food. Good chocolate satisfies with a square or two, bad chocolate means I keep eating the junk trying to get satisfied. Stuff like that.

Anyway... hugs. I need to sleep now but had to chime in with my too-many-words comment first.

LynnH

Laura said...

It's your blog, post every day progress if you want to! it'll be fun to watch it slowly grow to Olympic proportions. :D

That's cool about Bob and contacts! I'm proud of him. I've had contacts since '79, when they were hard plastic. The soft ones are nice, but having to pinch them off your eyes is odd. I have the near and far contacts, too and it's great. I've not lived in my forties long enough to be a bifocal babe, so the contacts are a good hide.

Well, I'm doing next year's Race for the Cure on breast cancer. My sister and I aren't happy we missed this year, but seeing Mom is always a higher priority. While I doubt training to run a 5K will drop my weight, it'll be nice to run as much as I want without gasping. I'm glad you're at least 8 pounds down, so much better than 8 up, no matter how crummy the plateau.